My name is Monica Hargraves and I work with Cooperative Extension associations across New York State as part of an evaluation capacity building effort in the Cornell Office for Research on Evaluation (CORE).  My work with Extension is shaped, in part, by insights we gained through a Concept Mapping research project we did in late 2008.  We wanted to explore, from practitioners’ perspectives, what factors contribute to supporting evaluation practice in an organization.

We used Concept Mapping software from Concept Systems, Inc. to gather ideas in response to this prompt: “One specific thing an Extension organization can do to support the practice of evaluation is …” Contributors included county-based educators and Executive Directors, as well as state-level Extension administrators and Cornell staff.  The raw ideas were pared down to a working set of 80, and then participants sorted the ideas into clusters and rated them on two criteria: potential for making a difference, and relative difficulty.

The individual ideas become points on a “Cluster Map” that gives a visual representation of how participants conceptualized the patterns and themes in ideas (see below. For information on the Concept Systems technology and the statistical techniques that underlie it, see www.conceptsystems.com.)  The ratings are useful for thinking strategically about what to do give priority to when trying to improve and sustain evaluation practice in organizations.

Rad Resource: For more detail on the study, including a handout with the individual idea statements and their ratings on potential difference, see http://core.human.cornell.edu/AEA_Conference.cfm#2008

Cluster Map of Ideas in Response to the Prompt: “One specific thing an Extension organization can do to support the practice of evaluation is …”

Lessons Learned:

• Technical assistance and training are not enough! The top-rated cluster in terms of potential for making a difference was “Communicate the Value of Evaluation.”  The ideas there included educating organization leaders, staff, and volunteers on the importance of evaluation (not the how-to), using evaluation results well and demonstrating how they lead to better programming, having an evaluation champion in-house, making evaluation results easy to understand and user-friendly.
• Communication is important. Communication should be used to motivate evaluation and build organizational commitment to it, and as a practical tool for sharing what works, fostering collaborations, and saving time.
• Leadership and Structure matter. The second and third most important clusters were “Set Expectations and Requirements” and “Integrate into Organization Structure”.  Respondents wanted clarity and consistency, and to have evaluation woven into a wide range of organization functions and practices.

This contribution is from the aea365 Daily Tips blog, by and for evaluators, from the American Evaluation Association. Please consider contributing – send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org.

cluster map, data visualization

My name is Mika Yoder Yamashita. I am the qualitative evaluation lead for the Center for Educational Policy and Practice at Academy for Educational Development. Our Center has been conducting process and outcome evaluations of the federally funded program, Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP).  This program aims at increasing college access among disadvantaged students.  As we are evaluating programs implemented in several sites, we are beginning to explore the possibility of conducting a multi-site evaluation. Today I will share my Center’s thoughts on how we can effectively approach conducting a multi-site evaluation that uses qualitative data to understand the process of program implementation. Then I will share how we use the literature to guide our data collection and analysis.

Our evaluation utilizes a similar approach to cluster evaluation (W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 1998). We draw upon Davidson’s (2000) approach to build hypotheses and theories of which strategies seem to work in different contexts.  The end goal of our cluster evaluation is to provide the client with a refined understanding of how programs are implemented at the different sites.

Cluster evaluation presents us with the following challenge: How to effectively collect and analyze qualitative data in a limited time to generate information on program implementation. To help us to guide qualitative data collection and analysis, we draw on a literature review.

Hot Tip: Start with literature review to create statements of what is known about how a program works and why it works. Bound a literature review according to the availability of time and evaluation questions. Document keywords, search engines, and decision regarding which articles are reviewed in order to create a search path for others. Create literature review protocols that consist of specific questions.  The reviewers write answers as they review each article. The evaluation team members review two to three summaries together to refine literature review questions and the degree of description to be included. We use qualitative data analysis software for easy management and retrieval of literature summaries. With this information, we draw diagrams to help us articulate what the literature reveals about how a program works and in what context. Using diagrams helps to share ideas across evaluation team members who are not involved in literature review.  Finally, create a statement of how and why the program works in what context and compare these statements with the data from the multiple sites.

Resources: Davidson, E.J., (2000). Ascertaining causality in theory-based evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation, 87, 17-26.*

W. K. Kellogg Foundation (1998). W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook. Battle Creek, Michigan: Author. Retrieved from: http://www.wkkf.org/knowledge-center/resources/2010/W-K-Kellogg-Foundation-Evaluation-Handbook.aspx

*AEA members have free online access to all back content from New Direction for Evaluation. Log on to the AEA website and navigate to the journals to access this or other archived articles.

This aea365 contribution is part of College Access Programs week sponsored by AEA’s College Access Programs Topical Interest Group. Be sure to subscribe to AEA’s Headlines and Resources weekly update in order to tap into great CAP resources! And, if you want to learn more from Mika, check out the CAP Sponsored Sessions on the program for Evaluation 2010, November 10-13 in San Antonio.

literature review, time management