Evaluability Assessment |
Course Description: Increasingly, both public and private funders are looking to evaluation not only as a tool for determining the accountability of interventions, but also to add to our evidence base on what works in particular fields. With scarce evaluation resources, however, funders are interested in targeting those resources in the most judicious fashion and with the highest yield. Evaluability assessment is a tool that can inform decisions on whether a program or initiative is suitable for an evaluation and the type of evaluation that would be most feasible, credible, and useful. This course will provide students with the background, knowledge, and skills needed to conduct an evaluability assessment. Using materials and data from actual EA studies and programs, students will participate in the various stages of the method, including the assessment of the logic of a program’s design and the consistency of its implementation;, the examination of the availability, quality, and appropriateness of existing measurement and data capacities; the analysis of the plausibility that the program/initiative can achieve its goals; and the assessment of appropriate options for either evaluating the program, improving the program design/implementation, or strengthening the measurement. The development and analysis of logic models will be stressed, and an emphasis will be placed on the variety of products that can emerge from the process. Students will be sent several articles prior to the course as a foundation for the method. Pre-requisite: Background in evaluation is useful and desirable. Also familiarity with conducting program level site visits. Instructor: Dr. Debra J. Rog directs the Washington office of the Vanderbilt University Center for Mental Health Policy, Institute for Public Policy Studies. She has 20+ years of experience in program evaluation/applied research and has directed numerous multi-site evaluations and research projects, most for vulnerable populations. Her dissertation involved assessing the usefulness of 57 evaluability assessments conducted in the federal government. Current projects include a set of evaluability assessments on projects intended to prevent childhood obesity as well as multi-component studies of mental health and substance abuse interventions for homeless families, and community partnerships and collaborations focused on violence preventions. She has numerous publications on evaluation methodology, housing, homelessness, poverty, mental health, and program and policy development, and is co-editor of the Applied Social Research Methods Series and the Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods (1997, Sage) and a contributor to the recent Encyclopedia on Evaluation. She served on AEA's Board of Directors; and the Advisory Committee of Women's Services for the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Fee: $795 |
