Does it Work and Why Does it Work?

For a group of people who love conciseness, evaluators often use tools with some complexity. A few are listed below.

Evaluation Checklists

Evaluators love checklists and so much so that there is repository solely dedicated to housing them. Head over to The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University to take a look.

Logic Models

Logic models are simply a visual(ish) way to depict the moving parts of a program. Once constructed, it is a fairly easy way to guide parts of an evaluation and for stakeholders to see if changes need to occur. The Program Development and Evaluation supported by the University of Wisconsin Extension Program is a fantastic resource for all things logic model.

A Whole Bunch of Methods

For better or for worse, being an evaluator is akin to being a jack of all trades but a master of none. That is not meant to be demeaning in any way (or else I’d just be putting myself down). They are typically methodologists and/or have an innate ability to construct studies to determine the needs of a program. However evaluators are rarely content experts and even if they are are, the likelihood of evaluating something within our content is pretty low. Take a look at Better Evaluation to get an idea of the breadth of methods and approaches evaluators need to know in order to do their job effectively.