Reserach Short Course: Persepectives on Evaluation
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Perspective on Evaluation • We don’t have the evaluation recipe. • There is no one right answer – life is ambiguous. • Evaluation is a paradigm of choices. • Stakeholder involvement is helpful for acceptance, usefulness. • Things will not always go according to plan. • Four primary characteristics of good evaluation: utility, feasibility, propriety, accuracy
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Short presentation used by Phyllis Fleming, PhD and Evaluation Director of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at University of North Carolina during the short course title "Institutional Research"
Transcript of Reserach Short Course: Persepectives on Evaluation
Perspective on Evaluation• We don’t have the evaluation recipe. • There is no one right answer – life is ambiguous.• Evaluation is a paradigm of choices.• Stakeholder involvement is helpful for acceptance,
usefulness. • Things will not always go according to plan. • Four primary characteristics of good evaluation:
utility, feasibility, propriety, accuracy
The National Farm to School Network Evaluation: Questions,
Perspectives, Lessons Learned
Phyllis Fleming, PhDEvaluation Director
Center for Health Promotion and Disease PreventionUniversity of North Carolina
Taking Root: National Farm to Cafeteria ConferenceMay 17, 2010
Evaluation Questions
1. Effectiveness of the National Farm to School Network related to five priorities
Marketing & media Training and technical assistance Networking Information development and dissemination Policy
2. Impact of four local programs on consumption of F & V, children’s attitudes, school food service operation, farmers and community
Multi-Method Design
• Logic models• Methods– Q1 - Web-based template administered quarterly – Q2
• School Lunch Recall (paper/pencil) – 2 sites• Fruit/Vegetable Neophobia Scale (paper/pencil) – 2 sites• Knowledge Scale – 1 site• Interviews – farmers, school food service personnel, teachers,
school district leadership, grass roots organizers, farm to school advocates - 4 sites
• School food service data – 1 site
Lessons learned
• Evaluation - a necessary evil?– Help program people understand their/your role
• Written approval to do evaluations (IRB).• Formal commitment from those who will provide data.• Working your way into the school day.
– Be clear/specific upfront about what you need.
• Cooperation and response rates.• Networking.
Lessons learned• Validation of tools.• Minimizing the data collection burden.• When you learn things you wish you had not.• Nice to know or need to know.– Have plans to use all of the data that you collect.
• When things don’t go as planned.– Be flexible.
• As evaluator, you may not be the most popular person in the room.– Be clear about what your role is.
