To all RPEN members,

Last week I had a unique experience. A District Director (Regional Manager) in my agency contacted me and asked what the

agency’s customer satisfaction survey reveals about how they are doing in their district and for what I saw in the data that

would suggest a direction for program improvement. I wish I could say that such a dialogue was commonplace. The reality

is that it is the first time since I started my position five and a half years ago that a District Director got curious about

outcomes from the agency’s customer satisfaction survey and communicated it.

Your experience may be different where you work. Regardless, what can we do to foster curiosity about data and what

can it  mean to Vocational Rehabilitation if it is used effectively?

Michael Shoemaker, M.A., CRC, LVRC, CPM

Utah State Office of Rehabilitation 

Program Planning and Evaluation Specialist

February 8, 2013 mtshoe RPEN Comments Off on February Program Evaluator’s Moment

In Utilization-Focused Evaluation, Dr. Michael Quinn explains, “In the simplest terms, evaluations are said to answer three questions: What? So What? Now What?”

Similarly, state Vocational Rehabilitation Programs have a need to answer these questions as they participate in program evaluation.

Today let’s look at the first question: What?

The Utah State Office of Rehabilitation has decided to measure or monitor in four major areas: Customer Service, Staff Professional Development, Financial and Policy and Procedure. You can view the diagram on page 5 that defines activities around each of these four areas at http://media.ncrtm.org/presentations/QA/UTmanual.pdf

What does your organization measure or monitor to move towards continuous quality improvement?

Michael Shoemaker, M.A., CRC, LVRC, CPM

Utah State Office of Rehabilitation

mtshoemaker@utah.gov

January 2, 2013 mtshoe RPEN Comments Off on The Program Evaluator’s Moment