Literacy Basics - Community Literacy of Ontario

Program Evaluation

Evaluation is something that LBS programs have known about and have been doing, both formally and informally, for many years. Incorporating program evaluation into ongoing agency activities is not new. However, what may be new for some agencies is the idea of focused program evaluation that provides proof of the program’s impact on people’s lives – in other words, outcomes-based program evaluation. In this module, we will take a brief look at program evaluation in general and then move on to explore outcomes-based evaluation in more detail.

Program evaluation is the process of systematically collecting information about the program or some aspect of the program in order to make important and necessary decisions.

Evaluation can be used to gather information about learner needs or about the possible need for alternative programming. For example, you could conduct a program evaluation to help you decide whether you should change current programming or to determine if current programming is learner-centred and relevant to learners’ stated goals.

Evaluation can also be used to monitor programs to ensure that they are being implemented as planned, that they are effective and efficient, that they are achieving stated goals and to measure their impact. Measuring impact is what outcomes-based evaluation does, so that will be the focus of this module.

Evaluation provides information that your agency will use to decide what, if any, changes are needed. For example, you might find that you reached 75% of your target contact hours, but that 95% of exited students identified a significant positive impact thanks to literacy training. Your agency would then likely decide that the content of your programming doesn’t need to be changed but that the hours you are open should be increased so that you can increase your contact hours.

The evaluation itself is not the decision – it is the activity that precedes, leads up to and provides the basis for good decision-making. It is the research that gathers the necessary information that the agency’s Board of Directors (or other decision-making body) needs in order to make a decision.

Before you start an evaluation, you should know not only what you are evaluating but also WHY you are evaluating. For example, did the Board of Directors simply decide it had been a long time since the last program evaluation? Or is there a more specific reason? Perhaps fewer learners are enrolling with your agency and you want to know why. Knowing why you are evaluating can help you determine the scope of the evaluation (i.e. will you be evaluating just part of the program or your entire program?), what your success measures will be and how indepth the evaluation will be. You will also need to decide who will conduct the evaluation, who will receive the results and/or final report, and how the results will be used.

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