Western > Resources > Planning and Best Practices > Step 7

Step 7: Evaluation

This site is designed to be a "how-to" guide to planning and implementing an evaluation of your prevention program. If you start by clicking on Section I of the outline below, you will be led through the step-by-step process of developing an evaluation. You can also use the outline to navigate the site and locate specific kinds of evaluation information. There are 7 major sections:

1. What is Evaluation & Why Do It?
2. Using a Logic Model for Evaluation Planning
3. How to Build Your Program Logic Model
4. How to Plan Your Evaluation
5. Evaluating Your Program Using the Logic Model
6. Analyzing, Using, and Interpreting Evaluation Information
7. Implementing the Evaluation

Within each section you will find worksheets, tools, and examples of how to conduct user-friendly evaluations of substance abuse prevention programs using the risk and protective factors model. These worksheets and tools can also be accessed in the last section of this site: Section 10: Evaluation Tools & Measures.

1. What is Evaluation & Why Do It?
2. Using a Logic Model for Evaluation Planning
   1. Who should develop the logic model?
   2. Benefits of a Logic Model
3. How to Build Your Program Logic Model
   1. What You Need to Know to Build your Logic Model
      1. What risk and protective factors does your program address?
      2. What services and activities will your program provide?
      3. Who will participate in your program?
      4. How will these activities lead to outcomes?
      5. What are your program's long and short term goals?
         1. What immediate changes are expected?
         2. What changes would your program ultimately like to create
   2. Reviewing your Logic model
4. How to Plan Your Evaluation
   1. General Considerations
   2. Developing the Plan
      1. What are you going to evaluate?
      2. What do you want to know about the program?
         1. Defining the purpose of the evaluation
         2. Defining the users of the evaluation
         3. Defining the evaluation questions
      3. Focusing the Evaluation
         1. Timing and program development
         2. Scope of the program
         3. Pragmatic considerations
5. Evaluating Your Program Using the Logic Model
   1. General Issues in Evaluation Methods
      1. Types of information
      2. Quantitative and Qualitative information
      3. Identifiying measureable indicators
      4. Making decisions about methods
   2. Evaluating Issue Focus
   3. Evaluating Program Activities and Outputs
   4. Evaluating Coverage
   5. Evaluating Program Assumptions
   6. Evaluating Outcomes
      1. Some common methods
         1. Post-test only
         2. Post-test with a comparison group
         3. Pre-Post
         4. Pre-Post with comparison group
      2. Distinctions between long and short term outcomes
      3. Measuring Client Satisfaction
6. Analyzing, Using & Interpreting Evaluation Information
   1. Basic Aggregation and Analysis Strategies
   2. Descriptive Information
   3. Testing for Changes Pre-Post
   4. Using and Interpreting Information
      1. How will the information be interpreted-by whom?
      2. How will the evaluation be communicated and shared?
7. Implementing the Evaluation
   1. Who's responsible for the evaluation
   2. How to know if you need an Evaluation Consultant or Contractor
   3. Finding and selecting a good consultant
8. Glossary
9. Links to evaluation resources
10. Evaluation Tools & Measures
    1. Logic Model Worksheet
    2. Hypothetical Logic Models from CSAP Best Practices
    3. Developing Questionnaires
    4. Developing Behavioral Surveys
    5. Interviewing
    6. Using Tests and Assessments
    7. Using Observational Data
    8. Conducting Focus Groups
    9. Using Case Studies
    10. Using Program Records
    11. Using Community Archival and Indicator Data
    12. Measuring Goal Importance
    13. Measuring Client Satisfaction
    14. Instruments for Risk and Protective Factors

Some of the information for this website has been adapted by the Northwest Professional Consortium from the following sources:

1. The Community Toolbox, University of Kansas Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development, available through: http://ctb.ku.edu/
2. Program Development and Evaluation Guide, University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension System, available through: http://www.uwex.edu/ces/pdande
3. Prevention Plus III, Linney, J. & Wandersman, A. (1990), Office of Substance Abuse Prevention.
4. W. K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook (1998).

For more information on conducting an evaluation:

Achieving Outcomes: A Practitioner's Guide to Effective Prevention, developed by the National Center for the Advancement of Prevention (funded by the HHS SAMHSA Center for Substance Abuse Prevention), Conference Edition 2002.