Style Sheet for Evaluation Design Assignment

Due May 16

Please provide me with a one page proposal for your topic by March 21. The proposal should provide a brief description of the program and the problem it was designed to address.  It should also include your preliminary ideas as to how you will measure the problem and the change in that problem that would represent the outcome of interest.  

The importance of a well-designed evaluation cannot be overstated.  Attempting to evaluate a program without a clear sense of purpose, direction, and methods not only results in a waste of time and resources, but will likely result in a poor quality or even useless evaluation..  The purpose of this assignment is for you to design (and present) a program evaluation for the program of your choosing.   The program may be administered by any public sector or nonprofit agency.  You will likely need to have access to program documents as well as people involved in running the program whom you can ask questions, so keep that in mind in selecting your program.   Your paper should include both a plan for conducting a process or implementation evaluation, and for assessing the program impact.  It should also inlcude the following elements:

	A complete description of the program, its activities, subobjectives, intended outcomes
	The history of and context for the program development; e.g., where and by whom was it initiated, what problem was it intended to address, why was this particular approach to addressing the problem taken?
	The question(s) and issues that the evaluation will be designed to answer or address.   Remember that the focus should be on how you would get the information to answer these questions, not the answers themselves.  For example, you should describe how you would go about finding out whether a program was implemented according to the original plan, rather than discussing whether it was or not.
	The estimated resources (inlcuding number of staff, amount of time, and expertise)   required to complete the evaluation.

	The data required to answer the evaluation questions, including method of data collection and alternative sources of data.
	The feasibility of obtaining these data, and any anticipated problems in getting them and shortfalls in them (e.g., missing data).
	A discussion of program variables and how they are or will be operationalized and measured (e.g., treatment, subobjectives, outcomes of interest).
	The type of design for impact analysis (see Mohr table 4.1) and potential threats to internal and external validity.  Be sure to indicate where your measures of results and the counterfactual will come from.

Your grade will be based on the extent to which your design has

	Defined and posed appropriate evaluation questions.
	Developed methodologies for answering those questions.
	Formulated a plan for collecting necessary data that anticipates and addresses problems that are likely to be encountered in collecting those data.
	Included a detailed analysis plan that will ensure the questions you pose are answered to the best extent possible.
	Is well-organized, and written in a clear and concise manner.