Educating Adolescent’s On Substance Abuse: A Program Evaluation
Synthesize and apply your understanding of program evaluation to demonstrate your knowledge and skill to engage in practice-informed research and research-informed practice and evaluate practice with organizations.
1. Introduction
a. Describe the problem/need to be addressed by the program
b. Overview of problem/need
Draw on this literature and additional literature as needed to address the following areas (citational evidence is expected):
Identify the factors that contribute to the problem/need.
Provide the reader with an understanding of the estimated numbers of people affected or impacted by the problem/need. Consider using national, state, and local data to provide context.
Discuss the specific population (demographic characteristics) and the geographic area on which you will focus.
c. Proposed program/strategy for addressing the problem/need
Synthesize the research/theoretical material in the form of a detailed program plan. What program are you proposing to address this problem/need? What empirical and/or theoretical literature supports your proposal? (citational evidence is expected).
2. Evaluation Design Description
In narrative format, address the following:
Identify and describe the evaluation design (Formative or Outcome) and the rationale for your choice.
Describe what evaluation question(s) you are hoping to answer (specifically, what are your research questions)
Briefly define the type of evaluation you selected (Formative or Outcome) and why it is appropriate for the question you are asking.
3. Research Design for your evaluation
In narrative format, address the following:
What type of research design are you proposing (SSRD; GRD)
Describe the type of design (SSRD; GRD). Provide a clear explanation and rationale for the kind of design you selected. How will this design help you answer your research question? Make sure to address or describe the collection of any baseline and/or outcome data (in SSRD designs) and pretest and/or posttest data (in GRD designs).
Describe the rationale for your design selection and identify the strengths and limitations of your design. What can this design allow you to do? What does it not allow you to do?
Why was a more rigorous design not feasible or appropriate?
b. Evaluation Sample
Describe the type of sample you are selecting and why. In other words, who will be participating in your evaluation? (Refer to Chapter 8)]
What procedures will you use to recruit participants for your study? How will you ethically recruit your sample?
What steps could you take to ensure diversity and representation in your sample?
c. Data Collection/Measures
Describe what data you will be using for your evaluation. Are these primary or secondary data?
What is/are your outcome measures? (Refer to Chapters 11 and 12)
Provide a brief description of each measure selected. Describe why you selected this measurement tool.
Make sure to indicate whether you are using an existing measure or creating your own.
If using a standardized measure, report the reliability and validity. Indicate what kind of outcomes or constructs this measure is specifically trying to measure.
If creating your measure, describe what process you will go through to design your tool. Make sure you include a description of how you will validate the instrument and/or improve its usability and face validity.
d. Analysis Plan
Describe what steps you will take to analyze your data. What statistics might you use?
What statistics, conditions, or attributes (e.g., outcomes) do we expect to see change due to the planned activities? How will you know when this is accomplished? In other words, what changes would you hope to see?
e. Conclusion/Reflections
Identify the strengths and limitations of your evaluation plan.
Are there additional surveys or measures you could implement to help demonstrate program efficacy (e.g., satisfaction surveys, analysis of expenditures, qualitative interviews, etc.)?
Your final presentation will ask you to reflect on the implications of your evaluation. Include any tentative thoughts regarding what information you think would be important to distill from this evaluation.
Why do you think program evaluations are an important tool to use generally in human service organizations? Your organization specifically?
