My name is Edilberto A. Raynes. I am an Associate Professor from the Tennessee State University. I am one of the five MSI Fellows from 2013-2014. I am coming in to the fellowship program with minimal background in evaluation. However, I have broad experiences in conducting social research in an academic institution. I have noticed that there were differences between conducting evaluative research and purely evaluative research, which include constructing a survey, writing a report, and conducting a presentation.
Lessons Learned:
- It is best to know the background of the stakeholders, the recipient of the report, the timeline, and the budget.
- Rubrics are utilized to facilitate framing of survey questions and to interpret quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods.
- Logic models include five core components: inputs, outputs, outcomes, assumptions, and external factors. These components are very valuable in mapping out the evaluative process.
- There is culture in the art of evaluation. There is a need to increase awareness of creating a culturally responsive evaluation.
- The art of writing non-evaluative questions. The use of proper verbiage such as “Was it any good? To what extent?
- The use of focus group as a form of evaluation.
Hot Tip: Attend the workshops that you are interested in exploring because you will find new information. These workshops include, but are not limited to AEA pre-conference workshops or professional development workshops in general. In my case, I learned a lot in the pre-conference workshops. Collaborate with colleagues because that is the only way one can establish relationships. Once relationships have been established, one is able to build tools in evaluative thinking.
Rad Resources:
- Actionable Evaluation: Jane Davidson is an expert with a book on this topic. She also has her own website filled with useful resources.
- How to improve writing evaluative questions? See: Improving evaluation questions and answers: Getting actionable answers for real-world decision makers also by Jane Davidson.
- Steps in Effective Evaluation
The American Evaluation Association is AEA Minority Serving Institution (MSI) Fellowship Experience week. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from AEA’s MSI Fellows. For more information on the MSI fellowship, see this webpage: http://www.eval.org/p/cm/ld/fid=230 Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.