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OUTCOMES-BASED PROGRAM EVALUATION |
Analyze, Report and Use your FindingsThis is a crucial component of any evaluation. If you don’t take the time to analyze and then report and act on your findings, the entire exercise is nothing more than a research exercise. You need to be able to use the information you have so carefully gathered to make informed decisions leading to program improvement. The first thing to do is double check for errors. It is all too easy to make a mistake when tabulating data, so check for accuracy. Once you have done that, you can calculate totals, percents, averages and so on. Next, you might want to break out the information into key characteristics, particularly if you have identified factors that could potentially influence outcomes. For example, you might want to look at gender, age, previous education, training goal, etc. as we discussed earlier in the workshop. If possible, have someone review your work … are there other sources of data that could have been used? For example, did you use both the IMS and the exit survey to research goal achievements. Do your numbers add up? Is your analysis fair and accurate and does it clearly represent the results of the evaluation? Does the analysis make sense? Did you use clear language? Does the report give you enough information without being too concise or is it too long? Factors that can Influence OutcomesNaturally, levels of achievement of outcomes will be different for each individual. But remember, although you are collecting individual data, you are not reporting on individual results – you are reporting on program results. You do this by first collecting and analyzing individual data and then compiling the information. For example, you could conduct a series of 20 individual interviews with parents from your family literacy program but then report that 15 respondents (or 75%) indicate they are regularly reading to their children. When you start to analyze the data you have collected, you will notice trends. For example, you might discover that more male learners report reading to their children than female learners. Or you might discover that older learners are less likely to use a banking machine than younger learners. |
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