Hello! My name is Annie Nguyen and I am a junior in high school in Saint Paul, MN. I am a part of the Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI) evaluation team that uses Youth Participatory Evaluation (YPE) to help us learn about and improve an after school cross-cultural leadership program for teens. This blog is about …
I’m Melissa Chapman Haynes, sharing additional contributions to this prompt from some inspiring Minnesota-based evaluators: If you could carry one lesson from the past to inform how the practice of evaluation moves forward, what would that be and why? You can’t force a good evaluation. One lesson from my evaluation past that I hope to …
My name is Melissa Chapman Haynes, Director of Evaluation at Professional Data Analysts in Minneapolis. In reflecting on paths to the future of evaluation, and in the humble company of some inspiring Minnesota-based evaluators, I wanted to start this week by asking them to reflect and to respond to the following prompt: If you could …
Greetings! I’m Sara Vaca, independent consultant and frequent Saturday contributor of this blog. Ever since I started my evaluation practice and became a consultant, my life has enormously change (I would say for good!) in comparison with the 10-year period when I used to work for organizations with a 9am-to-5pm office schedule. Those whose are …
Hello there! I am Darla Scott, one of the 2018 AEA Minority Serving Institutions Fellows. In my role as Assistant Professor, I train preservice school psychologists at Bowie State University, an HBCU in Bowie, Maryland. As a full-time faculty member at an MSI, I recognize the value of professional networking opportunities. I can truly say …
I’m Richard Chase. Greetings from Wilder Research in St. Paul, where I have been involved in youth-focused evaluations for about 35 years. When it comes to youth programs, we’ve known for a long time that successful programs both prevent problems and promote development. Consequently, I use the risk and protective factor framework for evaluating youth …
The Wisdom of Youth by Richard Chase Read More »
Greetings from the Evaluation Team for national nonprofit organization MHP Salud! This post discusses strategies for measuring your mission. Most organizations adopt a mission statement to guide their work. While alignment with this mission is arguably an organization’s most important metric, evaluating it can prove challenging in practice. Metrics defined by external stakeholders (e.g., funders) …
Measuring Your Mission by The Evaluation Team at MHP Salud Read More »
Hello again! I am Beverly Peters, assistant professor of Measurement and Evaluation at American University. This is the second article in a 6-part series on Using Focus Groups for Monitoring and Evaluation. In the first article, we learned that focus groups are an appropriate data collection tool when the topic or evaluation question would benefit from …
Focus Group Planning by Beverly Peters Read More »
Greetings! I am Beverly Peters, assistant professor of Measurement and Evaluation at American University. I have over 25 years of experience teaching, researching, and designing, implementing, and evaluating community development and governance projects, mainly in southern Africa. I have spent the bulk of my career using qualitative methods to evaluate projects; and write a blog for …
Focus Groups: The Right Tool for Me? By Beverly Peters Read More »
Hi, we are Andrew Taylor and Ben Liadsky from Taylor Newberry Consulting. Previously we shared with you our research on learning cultures and how grantmakers can build learning relationships with their grant recipients beginning at the grant application stage. Now, we’re back to share some practical tools to help you put those ideas into action. …
