PHASE TWO
Action
STEP 03
Planning and Focusing Your Evaluation
In Step 03: Planning and Focusing Your Evaluation, you will bring together the key stakeholders of your program to develop an evaluation plan that identifies your evaluation questions, evaluation design, data collection methods, and analysis plan.
Before you set off on your evaluation journey, bring together your program stakeholders and develop a roadmap (your evaluation plan).
Just as using a roadmap facilitates progress on a long journey, an evaluation plan can clarify what direction an evaluation should take – based on the priorities, resources, time, and skills needed to accomplish the evaluation.
The process of developing an evaluation plan that is focused on needs and priorities identified by the organization will provide a sense of shared purpose. An important action in this step is the development of broad evaluation questions that the evaluation is designed to answer. These questions frame the scope of the evaluation.
What is an evaluation plan?
KEY TAKEAWAY
An evaluation plan that identifies your evaluation questions, evaluation design, data collection methods, analysis plan, and a communications plan for sharing your findings. An evaluation plan is a roadmap for your evaluation journey!
01.
Focus your evaluation. Establish priorities by determining what aspects of your program need to be evaluated and who will use your results.
02.
Develop your evaluation question. Clearly consider what your program needs to know from the evaluation to select an area of focus. You can ask the following questions to help guide this process:
Process Evaluation Questions
Did the target youth participate as anticipated? Were activities implemented as planned? How often, when, and with what duration? Were outputs produced as intended? Does the program differ from the original plan? Why?
Outcome Evaluation Questions
Are youth participants satisfied with the program? Was the location and timing of the program accessible? To what extent did participants’ level of knowledge improve? Did their attitudes change? Did they develop new skills? To what extent did participants change their behaviour or actions? To what extent has the target population’s condition or situation improved?
03.
Create a plan for data collection. Determine what information sources you need, what data is available, and what type of methodology you will need to use. You can also use an evaluation plan methods grid to help create a more visual representation of your data collection plan.
04.
Create a plan for conclusions to share lessons. Determine how the data will be contextualized to draw conclusions, and how your program intends to use what you learn from the evaluation to improve your program and inform your stakeholders.
There are different methodologies for analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, so be sure to be mindful of your program’s capacities when selecting/designing your data collection tools!
Who should be involved in the evaluation of our youth program?
Representatives from many stakeholder groups can collaborate to support an evaluation: board members, management, staff, parents, youth, volunteers, and community members.
Involving stakeholders generates buy-in for evaluation efforts and will help focus the evaluation on the program’s goals and activities.
Stakeholders should have the opportunity to express their goals for the project and understand how program outcomes and decision-making are connected to the evaluation.
It may not be feasible or productive to have all stakeholders attend every meeting. As an evaluation team, you will need to determine the critical players and get the right people to the table as you plan meetings and activities.