The evaluation of a program - Start early with your mission statement, aims and objectives

This is the second in a series of articles on the evaluation of the program. The first article explains why evaluating programs and gives a brief overview of the process. This article provides details on the initial stages of this process.

The best place to start is the beginning. By this I mean, revisit the idea or the plan has led to the creation of the program. Your program or organization has a mission statement? Objectives? If these documents are already in place, they can help provide the structure for your consideration. You might want to first establish contact with stakeholders, to be sure that these documents still reflect the way you see yourself and what you do. Otherwise, you have to update them. If these documents are not in place, it is best to begin the assessment with the creation of them, with input from all stakeholders.

Once the mission and objectives are in place, you can move on to writing specific objectives (also called the findings or statements of results). Objectives are more specific objectives. Objectives tend to be broader, and are likely to remain relevant from year to year, until the focus of your organization or program does not change. One goal might be "helping homeless families re-establish." Objectives should be specific strategies you intend to take to achieve the desired changes. For example, if your goal is to help homeless families, one of your goals might be, "provide vocational guidance and placement assistance." Another goal might be: "to provide assistance in finding affordable housing." If the program helps homeless families, it would not be hard to believe that you are doing both. Every single aspect of what you do not need an own goal. Moreover, if the program is dedicated solely to support the work placement, for example, you'll likely have to write a series of objectives in relation to this that are much more specific than my example above.

The best advice I can give regarding writing your goals is to make them measurable and use active verbs. If it is not something you can see, listen, count, weigh or otherwise hold, it will be difficult to find a credible way to measure it. Here is a bad example: "Students will appreciate the differences between the Baroque and Renaissance music." I'm not sure how I can tell, looking at someone even if you do not appreciate something. However, "Students will be able to distinguish various compositions based on their knowledge of Baroque and Renaissance music forms," ​​or "Customers will be able to identify and effectively implement three effective job search strategies," which are statements we can work.

Use active verbs that clearly communicate the expected outcome. There are a number of online sources of lists of active verbs, you will probably find useful. Council also Chapter 2 of Mary J. Allen (2004) Assessment of Academic Programs in Higher Education (Anker Publishing Company). Although this book was intended for college and university teachers and administrators, has very broad applications.

Finally, do not be frustrated at all if you or some of your stakeholders are not completely satisfied with your first efforts. It often takes the most experienced of us more than one round to come up with a statement of intent and objectives that capture the attention of the program, and goals that are truly representative of what you do on a daily basis. Keep in mind that this article and others in this series are not intended to replace the need for a professional consultation, but to allow the process to be more aware of how you work with your advisor.

Rates good! ......