By Day 7
Respond to at least two colleagues in at least one of the following ways:
Compare how your colleagues’ responses are like or different from your own.
Assuming the role of Dr. Jones, ask a probing question about your colleague’s identified educational program and/or experience with program evaluation in an educational setting.
(1) Brittany JORDAN
RE: Discussion – Week 1 (Module
1)
Based on your professional experience,
identify a specific program in an educational setting and explain how it might
benefit from a program evaluation effort.
A program in my educational setting that might benefit from
program evaluation is what my campus calls “open-door policy” and “OCs.” While
these are technically two different programs, the open-door policy is only
applicable to our OC program. “OCs” or “Opportunity Club” is essentially
after-school tutoring or study hall that teachers assign to students who are
failing or missing assignments. The OC program has been around for several
years and can help students bring up their grades or find a quiet place to
complete homework, yet it has not been effective in recent years. Many teachers
do not provide time after school for students to work with them; therefore, our
campus administrators have now implemented an “open-door policy” where students
must see a teacher after school if they fail a class. While required by
contract hours to be present on campus until a specific time, teachers are now
being watched to ensure they are in classrooms until contract hours are
complete. This can benefit from a program evaluation to determine if and how
these programs are effective in helping students be successful in their
classes. Program evaluators can use a blend of summative, such as student
scores throughout the school year, and formative, such as end-of-year surveys
of students who utilize the program to determine its effectiveness (Spaulding,
2014).
Describe your past or present experience with
evaluating an educational program either formally or informally. Be sure to
include your role and/or participation in the evaluation process.
I have never really been part
of formally evaluating a program, except for summer workshops provided by the
district to “evaluate” the writing program at our schools, which is what the
district says the workshops are for. I do not feel like it is an official
program evaluation since we do not provide feedback on practices or curricula
that the writing program offers; however, the summer workshops are grading
workshops to evaluate teacher effectiveness and review if teachers can
successfully teach specific aspects of writing. I feel like this is only one
aspect of evaluating a writing program, and while we do offer feedback for some
strategies or goals for the writing program, there is more to the program than
student output. Additionally, there is no baseline for student writing for this
program. Teachers do not formally assess students at the beginning of the year,
yet we have an extensive assessment at the end of the year, which shows how
students are doing. Without a beginning assessment, we cannot accurately
determine if the writing program is working or not. We should also evaluate
practices and other input instead of focusing on output (Chen, 2015). I also
informally evaluate the curriculum at school formatively by deciding when and
how to make changes in my curriculum or teaching strategies based on how my
students perform on standards.
Share your strengths as a program evaluator
and your areas for professional development.
Since I have never been part of
formal evaluation, I am unsure what skills I possess. However, I am familiar
with formative and summative assessments as a teacher (Chen, 2015), so I can
use that knowledge to evaluate a program, although I am unfamiliar with many of
the different evaluation theories. I am also skilled in using different
categories of standards to develop goals or objectives for learning, which can
transfer to using standards to evaluate a program (Joint Committee, 2016).
Aside from this, I would benefit from learning more about program evaluation
and how to become more effective in evaluation.
Explain the importance of ethical behavior
when serving as an internal and external evaluator; be sure to justify your
answer.
Spaulding (2014) explains that ethical behavior is essential to
avoid “potential harm” (pg 41) for program participants. For this reason, the
Joint Committee on Standards for Education Evaluation (2016) was created and
helps evaluators and participants ensure quality within the programs. In the
same way as educational standards are designed to ensure equity for students’
education between school settings, these evaluation standards can also help
evaluators maintain professionalism and credibility (Chen, 2015). Maintaining
ethics helps protect those involved in the program evaluation and protect the
evaluation process.
References
Chen, H. T. (2015). Practical program evaluation:
Theory-driven evaluation and the integrated
evaluation perspective (2nd ed.). Sage.
Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation. (2016).
Program evaluation standards
statements.
http://www.jcsee.org/program-evaluation-standards-statements
Spaulding, D. T. (2014). Program evaluation in practice:
Core concepts and examples for
discussion and analysis (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
(2) Shaun Sweigard
Original Post Week 1 (Module 1)
Fundamentals of Program
Evaluation
What is program evaluation? Understanding the practices, principles, and
approaches implmented by educators and stakeholders is imperative in
assessing an educational programs effectiveness. Throughout history, educators
and stakeholders have utilized a variety of ideas, philosophies, and frameworks
to gauge the efficacy of such programs. There are two types of evaluators:
internal and external. Internal evaluators are chosen from within an
institution/organization and are tasked with evaluating the
organizations/institutions own programs, policies, and procedures. External
evaluators are not employees of a particular entity, but are hired experts from
outside the organization/institution (Chen, 2015). Milton Friedman (n.d.)
states, “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their
intentions rather than their results” (Walden University, 2021). Educators must
never lose sight of such wisdom. It is imperative that program evaluation maintains
a high level of fidelity, with full adherence to the framework put in place.
This approach will facilitate a fair, firm, and constant evaluation environment
facilitating achievement and growth.
Evaluation Types
Educators and stakeholders alike must understand both basic evaluation types
and hybrid evaluation types to ensure a copesetic evaluation process. According
to Chen (2015), basic and hybrid evaluation types include the following:
Basic
Evaluation Types
Constructive Process Evaluation
Conclusive Process Evaluation
Constructive Outcome Evaluation
Conclusive Outcome Evaluation
Hybrid evaluation could include evaluation functions, program stages, or any
combination of the two. Hybrid evaluations are more complex in nature.
Furthermore, two types of hybrid evaluations are commonly used including (Chen,
2015):
Hybrid Evaluation Types
Conclusive/Constructive Process Evaluation
Conclusive/Constructive Outcome Evaluations
Based
on your professional experience, identify a specific program in an educational
setting and explain how it might benefit from a program evaluation effort.
Describe your past or present experience with evaluating an educational program
either formally or informally. Be sure to include your role and/or
participation in the evaluation process.
Based on my professional experience, as
an educator I have had the privilege of interacting with several educational
programs. The three programs within my building that come to mind are our
Student Learning Communities (SLC’s), Running/Fitness Club, and our Diversity
Club. All three of these programs could certainly benefit initially from a
Constructive Process Evaluation, which seeks to identify the strengths/weaknesses
of a program. Informally, I have some experience as an internal evaluator. My
role was as a committee member in our buildings PBIS committee.
Share
your strengths as a program evaluator and your areas for professional
development.
As a program evaluator, I have strengths in analytical skills. In addition, I
have a natural curiosity about “how” and “why” things succeed and/or fail.
Furthermore, I’m generally pretty intuitive and enjoy organizing information in
order to understand what it means. Professionally, I would enjoy more
opportunities to learn about internal verses external evaluators.
Explain
the importance of ethical behavior when serving as an internal and external
evaluator; be sure to justify your answer.
Evaluators are
essentially hired decision makers, with that comes their own assumptions and
biases. As a result, both internal and external evaluators must adhere to a set
of professional ethics and standards. These accountability measures enhance the
evaluators integrity and creditability throughout the process (Chen,
2015). The American Evaluation Association (2004) adopted 5 ethical
principles for evaluators to adhere to:
• Systematic inquiry. Evaluators conduct
systematic, data-based inquiries.
• Competence. Evaluators provide competent performance to stakeholders.
• Integrity/honesty. Evaluators ensure honesty
and integrity of the entire evaluation process.
• Respect for people. Evaluators respect the
security, dignity, and self-worth of the respondents, program participants,
clients, and other stakeholders.
• Responsibilities for general and public welfare. Evaluators
articulate and take into account the diversity and values that may be related
to the general and public welfare. (“The Principles”)
References
Chen,
H. T. (2015). Practical program evaluation:
Theory-driven evaluation and the integrated evaluation perspective (2nd ed.).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Walden
University. (2021). Week
1 (Module 1): Understanding the Evaluation Practice—What Is Program Evaluation?
Discussion: Fundamentals of Program Evaluation
In Discussions throughout this course, you will engage in scenarios where you are part of a program evaluation committee. You will have the opportunity to benefit from your colleagues’ experiences as they, too, assume a role in a committee and share their thoughts in Discussion posts and responses.
Consider the following scenario:
You are working in an educational setting and your district supervisor, Dr. Jones, has asked you to start learning about program evaluation. The goal is to prepare you to be a part of the evaluation of a specific program in your educational setting. Dr. Jones would also like you to provide some background information on the program, share your professional experiences, and demonstrate your understanding of the ethical issues related to serving as an internal and external evaluator.
To prepare
Review this week’s Learning Resources, focusing on the following:
Consider the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation Program Standards and relate these standards to any professional experiences you may have had with a program evaluation in an educational setting.
Learning Resources
Required Readings
Chen, H. T. (2015). Practical program evaluation: Theory-driven evaluation and the integrated evaluation perspective (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Chapter 1, “Fundamentals of Program Evaluation” (pp. 3–34)
Spaulding, D. T. (2014). Program evaluation in practice: Core concepts and examples for discussion and analysis (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Chapter 1, “Foundations of Program Evaluation” (pp. 3–39)
Chapter 2, “Ethics in Program Evaluation and an Overview of Evaluation Approaches” (pp. 41–58)
Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation. (2016). Program evaluation standards statements. Retrieved from http://www.jcsee.org/program-evaluation-standards-statements
Walden University. (2016a). Connect Google scholar to the Walden Library. Retrieved from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/c.php?g=80464&p=520460#s-lg-box-1521441
Walden University. (2016b). How do I find scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles? Retrieved from http://academicanswers.waldenu.edu/faq/72600
Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health. (2013). Program Evaluation Toolkit. Retrieved June 12, 2018, from http://www.excellenceforchildandyouth.ca/sites/default/files/resource/toolkit_program_evaluation_tools_for_planning_doing_and_using_evaluation.pdf/
Document: Program Evaluation Grant: Overview and Eligibility (Learning Outcomes Project Guidelines and Instructions) (Word document)
Document: Program Evaluation Grant: Request for Proposal Template (Word document)