Program Accountability
Basic Resources: Provides general training and resources available to all staff to help monitor or evaluate the success of efforts more efficiently and effectively. Some of these are electronic and posted at our intranet page, including links to national research and evaluation and training on monitoring the success of your efforts. This is very helpful for self-monitoring or in the planning or first year of a project.
Technical Support: Provides more tailored training or support on specific data analyses or evaluation methods appropriate for a project. Technical support could involve the development of logic models, evaluation plans, student documentation tools, and instruments. It may also involve collaborating to develop observation instruments and establishing reliability across raters or creating data sets from department files. This type of support is most helpful in the planning year or first year of a project. Occasionally it is appropriate later in a project.
Implementation/Process Evaluation: Assesses whether a program is reaching the intended target audience. Also examines the fidelity of implementation of a program, comparing intent with actual implementation in terms of those served, level of service, frequency and intensity of use, attitudes and buy in to approaches. These studies are often done in collaboration with program staff, most often in the first year of a program, but sometimes later if issues arise. The extent of the department's involvement in the actual observations varies; sometimes it is simply technical support to staff and sometimes staff conduct observations.
Impact/Product/Outcomes: Assesses attainment of short-term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes for staff, students, and other groups if applicable; judges the impact of program efforts. Sometimes short-term outcomes are strictly implementation measures rather than teacher or student impact measures (see above). These evaluations generally occur after one to three years, depending on the complexity of the initiative as documented in the logic model.
Inputs/Needs/Cost Benefit Analyses (CBA):Input evaluation refers to the assessment of competing strategies in terms of the resources necessary to implement them. This relates to the broader needs assessment process, in which data is also often reviewed to evaluate the need for a program or initiative. A Cost Benefit Analysis states in monetary or other standard units the cost of the intervention and the benefit derived, taking into account number of persons impacted, amount of time over which the benefit may exist, and the opportunity costs associated with the selection of intervention. There are several models for CBA; the form most often relevant to educational evaluations is cost-effectiveness. During the planning stage, CBA helps analyze the initial and continuing costs (in resources and time) of various approaches, as well as the expected benefits. This helps planners choose the best option to address a particular need relative to expected benefits. After a project has been in place long enough to produce measurable benefits, an analysis of the cost-effectiveness of an approach can be done (conducted by the department, often in conjunction with Internal Audit staff).