Data ‘R’ Us Making Good Use of Your Data

Slide 1: Title slide – Data ‘R’ Us Making Good Use of Your Data; Session 2 Project Design 101: How to Develop and Implement a Doable Plan (and Other Practical Issues).

Slide 2: Agenda: How to operationalize  your PE questions and project; Choosing the best PE model for your agency and the project; Developing your logic model (LM); Moving the LM into goals and objectives that include tasks, responsibilities and data collection methods; How to work effectively with an external Program Evaluation contractor to ensure you get what you need.

Slide 3: Step 1: What is the Question? Refresher: Types of PE Questions: Description – What are the demographic characteristics of Transition Youth that apply for services?  Relationship (Difference or Association) – Do customer satisfaction rates vary by customer’s race/ethnicity?  Causality – Do customers enrolled in the EXPLORE training program have better outcomes than those receiving traditional rehabilitation services?

Slide 4: Step 2: Operationalize the Question!  Operationalization: The process of clearly defining fuzzy ideas or concepts into measurable factors that can be empirically measured.  It is the critical step in developing program evaluation or research study.

Slide 5: Why should we do it?  The process of operationalizing a project, especially when developing a project plan by committee, helps keep everyone on the same page by ensuring: Everyone is talking about the same thing (you say tomato, I say tomahto); You are measuring what you think you are measuring (apples vs. oranges OR apples and oranges?); You have everything in place to evaluate the project BEFORE the project begins (avoiding the OOPs factor); Ensures the project can be replicated in the future and results compared over time (avoids evaluating Gala apples in 2011 and Red Delicious in 2014).

Slide 6: 6 Key Components for Operationalizing a Project: 1) Purpose and Scope - Need to ensure that the purpose of the project is clearly stated and the scope of the project is clearly delineated.   Example 1: CSNA Project: Collect every bit of data humanly possible, Example 2: CSNA Project Purpose 1: Investigate counselors’ perceptions about populations of people with disabilities that are unserved or underserved in their service district.  2) Define Key Concepts - Process of turning fuzzy ideas or concepts into concrete terms that can be empirically measured.  Examples: “Unserved and Underserved Populations”,  “Working Alliance”.  3) Population of Interest - Need to clearly describe the SPECIFIC group of people do you want to learn more about.  Example 1:  Transition Youth.  Example 2:   Customers age 14-18 that are enrolled in a K-12 education system.

Slide 7: 6 Key Components for Operationalizing a Project (continued): 4) Measurement Procedures - What variables are you going to use to collect the data (and what do you need to create)? Example 1: Specific RSA911 data variables and new electronic survey items (max = x questions) that will be empirically measured and open ended items (max = x questions) to collect qualitative data.  5) Data Collection Methods - How and when are you going the collect the data? Example 1: Extant/Existing data collected first week of each quarter, Example 2: Electronic counselor survey launched the first week of May, reminder emails will go out on Tuesdays of weeks 2 and 3, survey will closed on Friday of week 3.  6) Project Criteria Levels - What is the minimum criteria for determining ‘success’ for this project? Example 1: 85% satisfaction rate, Example 2: Increase of 10% in minority customers satisfaction rate by 2015 (2010 = 69%), Example 3: Increase of 20% over baseline in the number of employers involved in the EXPORE program for transition youth customers.  

Slide 8: Step 3: Choosing the best PE Model for your Agency and the Project.  The PE model selected is often driven by the purpose of the project, the project question(s) and/or the agencies administrative style: Traditional Goal Attainment Model - Purpose:  Provide accountability, specifically in relation federally or state mandated requirements and funding. The evaluation should go beyond investigating the stated goals to evaluating both the intended and unintended outcomes; Question:  Did ‘A’ occur or not? What were the intended and unintended outcomes?; Limitations:  Typically only empirical data is used in the analyses and as a result, information is not collected or reported about the underlying processes that may be impacting what parts of a program work and or do not work; Interesting Note: This model generated two commonly used program evaluation terms: Formative evaluation:  Assessing the merits of a program while it is still under development, Summative evaluation: Assessing the outcomes of a completed program.

Slide 9: PE Models (continued) – Program Theory Evaluation (PTE) Model: Purpose: Determining what is working and what is not based on an explicit theory or model of how a program is supposed to work and how the program causes the intended or observed outcomes. The program  model is typically laid out as using a logic model that is typically developed by the evaluator in collaboration with the program developers. This is a good model to use to capture process data; Questions: Is new initiative ‘B’ being implemented as designed? Are the outcomes of initiative ‘B’ what were intended?; Limitations: Because PTE is primarily associated with qualitative data collection methods, the evaluator cannot establish if outcomes were caused by the program itself. Causality can only be established through experimental design.

Slide 10: PE Models (continued) – Context, Input, Process, and Product (CIPP) Model (the most commonly known and used PE Model): Purpose – The model describes four kinds of evaluative activities that can be conducted independently or collectively: Context evaluation:  Assessment of the problems, needs, and opportunities present in program’s setting (e.g., agency, community and/or other environments); Input evaluation:  Assessment of work plans, budgets and alternative or competing strategies and programs (e.g., what is available and needed); Process evaluation:  Monitors, documents, and assesses program activities (e.g., programs fidelity to the plan, intended and unintended outcomes); Product evaluation:  Examines the impact of the program on the target population, specifically in terms of outcomes, and the extent to which the program is sustainable and transferable (e.g., are the outcomes what were expected and if so, can we keep doing it here and elsewhere?).

Slide 11: PE Models (continued) – Utilization-Focused Evaluation (UFE): Purpose:  UFE is not an evaluation model nor does it endorse a specific PE model, method or techniques. It is a general approach to evaluation that has only two fundamental requirements:  1. The relevant decision makers and evaluation report audiences must be clearly identified at the inception of the project, 2. Evaluators must work actively with the decision makers (or their designees) to decide upon all aspects of the evaluation, including such matters as the evaluation questions, research design, data analysis, interpretation, and dissemination.

Slide 12: Step 4: Logic Model, Project Plan or Both?  Logic Model: Visually displays the sequence of actions that describe what the program is, what it will do and how investments link to results – often required for grants; originally designed to depict qualitative studies.  Project Plan: A detailed, step by step narrative description and/or Ghant-type chart that includes the goals, objectives, activities and tasks of the program evaluation plan.

Slide 13: Logic Model Basic Components: Inputs – Outputs – Outcomes.  Inputs: resources, contributions, investments that go into the program.  Outputs: specific activities, services and products provided to people who participate or who are targeted.  Outcomes: results or changes for individuals, groups, the agency and/or key external stakeholders.  Assumptions: beliefs about the program, the people involved, the context and the way the program will work.  External Factors: the agency environment in which the program exists as well as a variety of external factors that interact with and influence the program activities and outcomes.

Slide 14: Slide shows an example of a Program Development Logic Model which includes Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation.

Slide 15: What Must be included in a Project Plan? Goal: A broad statement of what will be achieved; Objectives: Specific, measurable outcomes of the project.  Objectives must have timetables for completion; Activities/Tasks: Work performed in order to achieve each objective.  Activities/Tasks do not need to be sequential and can be carried out concurrently but they MUST provide enough detail so that an outsider can implement the project: What will be done? Who will do it? How will it be done? Where will it be done? When will it happen? What lessons were learned from this process?

Slide 16: SMART Goals for Program Evaluators – Specific: concepts are well defined; clear to anyone that has a basic knowledge of the project.  Measurable: every construct is measurable and observable; every variable is clearly defined and measures only one thing; the population is clearly defined.  Agreed Upon: agreement among all the stakeholders about the purpose of the project, how it will be used, the steps needed for completion and reasonable time frames.  Realistic: the plan is doable within the availability of resources, knowledge and time.  Time Based: enough time is allocated to complete the project; not too much time is allocated to planning the project.

Slide 17: Working Effectively with an External Program Evaluator: Bring them on early in the process; Set the expectation that they will use Utilization-Focused Evaluation (UFE) process before you hire them (if they don’t know what it is, don’t hire them!); Assume they know nothing about the agency or the program. . . that is your area of expertise (the converse may also apply); Operationalize the PE questions and project together; Let the program evaluator develop and then implement the project plan (watched pots and all that stuff); Facilitate vs. monitor the process.