My name is Ann Marie Isbell, and I am an advanced graduate student at Claremont Graduate University and a research associate at a national nonprofit. In my experience conducting evaluations, I have found logic models to be essential first step to understanding the program being evaluated and planning an evaluation, and have listed some useful resources.
Rad Resource: A slim, easily understandable text on logic models is The Logic Model Guidebook: Better Strategies for Great Results by Knowlton and Phillips. The authors provide a good description of what is a logic model and why they are useful, as well as present several visual examples of logic models. For more information or to purchase, search http://www.sagepub.com.
Rad Resource: For over 25 years, the Harvard Family Research Project has been an invaluable source on evaluation with numerous publications and resources. The organization does a great job of condensing information on research and evaluation projects. A couple of resources from this project that I have found very informative and understandable are How to Develop a Logic Model for Districtwide Family Engagement Strategies and Learning from Logic Models in Out-of-School Time, both downloadable from http://www.hfrp.org/publications-resources.
Rad Resource: The W.K. Kellogg Foundation Logic Model Development Guide was developed to assist nonprofits struggling to demonstrate the effectiveness of their programs. It was intended that the guide would be used toward program planning and implementation, and information dissemination. To order, go to http://www.wkkf.org.
Rad Resource: An easy to navigate online course that was recommended to me is the University of Wisconsin-Extension’s course on Enhancing Program Performance with Logic Models. The seven-section course, available for free, teaches the basics of logic models such as key components and benefits, and would be a practical course to recommend to a coworker or student new to evaluation. http://www.uwex.edu/ces/lmcourse
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.