Program Evaluation

Sometimes a school needs an outside set of eyes to come in and evaluate a particular program or initiative. Though I will engage quantitative data when it’s available, my approach is primarily qualitative, meaning that I will observe, collect documents and artifacts, and conduct interviews and focus groups. My goal is to understand the key stakeholders in terms of the beneficiaries of a program and those involved in implementing it. What are the intended objectives of the program, where is it meeting those objectives, and where can it be improved. Sometimes an evaluation is desired at an end-point of a program in order to report on it’s impact and make decisions about it’s status going forward. At other times, an evaluation is desired in the early stages of a program to inform its implementation. At still other times, an evaluation is desired in the midst of an established program with the goal of improving it. A key feature of my approach to program evaluation is to determine, together with the key stakeholders at the school, the objectives of the evaluation itself in order to shape it in a way that is most useful to the school.