Evaluation
How to evaluate your work
Measuring Program Quality: A Guide to Assessment Tools - Thanks to growing interest in youth program quality, many tools are now available to help organizations and systems assess and improve quality. Given the size and diversity of the sector, it is unrealistic to expect that any one tool or process will fit all programs or circumstances. This new report from the Forum for Youth Investment provides potential users with useful information to guide their decision-making.
Building Quality Improvement Systems: Lessons from Three Emerging Efforts in the Youth-Serving Sector - Quality is fast becoming a policy priority in states and localities around the country. As a result, formal and informal networks of youth organizations are seeking and developing strategies to help them assess and improve performance. This new report from the Forum for Youth Investment takes a close look at efforts underway in three networks: Girls Incorporated, Michigan 21st Century Community Learning Centers, and YouthNet of Greater Kansas City. The cases shed light on several important questions, including: What kinds of quality improvement processes are being designed and implemented in the field? What do similarities and differences between various approaches tell us about the design choices that are being made? What might be some consequences of different designs, in terms of both the implementation and results of improvement efforts? This report provides a preliminary framework for planning any kind of program quality improvement work in the youth-serving sector.
Junior Master Gardener Program Evaluations - Articles in July-September 2005 issue of HortTechnology evaluated the impact of the JMG program in Lousiana (science achievement), Indiana (knowledge and attitudes), and Texas (science achievement and life skills). The articles are summarized in School Gardens Grow Science Achievement Scores in the National Science Teachers WebNews Digest.
Farm to School Curriculum Evaluation - The Farm to School work group in California is reviewing curriculum for teachers to use with a farm to school program, and is also gathering reviews from others. This online form shows a model approach to curriculum evaluation. Results of this survey will be available online soon. Check back later.
Three ways to check your progress - Simple forms, quality circles and observation can help you improve your programs.
Garden Drawing Evaluation - Use pre- and post drawings to evaluate programs with children too young to respond to written surveys.
Youth as Evaluators: What’s an adult to do? - Helpful research- and experience-based advice for youth workers and other adults to support youth involvement in research and evaluation projects.
User-Friendly Handbook for Mixed Method Evaluations - From the National Science Foundation, a helpful paper on using quantitative and qualitative research methods.
The 2002 User-Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation - From the National Science Foundation.
School Gardens Measure Up - The National Gardening Association scoured the country in search of results of school gardening research studies that might help fuel your arguments and proposals about the benefits students reap from living garden laboratories.
Science Teachers Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (STEBI) - Looks at self-efficacy in teaching science, which relates to one's ability to see oneself as a "do-er" and "teacher" of science.
The Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) Out-of-School Time (OST) Program Evaluation Database - A compilation of profiles of evaluations of OST programs and initiatives. It provides accessible information about evaluation work of both large and small programs to support the development of high quality evaluations.
Subject-Specific and General Rubrics - A helpful collection of assessment rubrics and graphic organizers.
The Rochester Evaluation of Asset Development for Youth (READY) tool is an instrument designed to help youth serving programs evaluate the impact of their programs on youth development outcomes of participants. To learn more, visit these two sites: Measuring Positive Youth Development (University of Rochester Medical Center Department of Pediatrics) and ACT for Youth.