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Chapter 5: Expressing and Assessing Program Theory Roberta Ballard

Chapter 5: Expressing and Assessing Program Theory Roberta Ballard. Evaluability Assessment Perspective. Evaluability assessment is determining if preconditions exist for evaluation prior to preceding Description of program model Assessment of definition and evaluability of model

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Chapter 5: Expressing and Assessing Program Theory Roberta Ballard

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  1. Chapter 5: Expressing and Assessing Program TheoryRoberta Ballard

  2. Evaluability Assessment Perspective • Evaluability assessment is determining if preconditions exist for evaluation prior to preceding • Description of program model • Assessment of definition and evaluability of model • Identification of stakeholder interest and use of findings

  3. Describing Program Theory • Basis for formulating and prioritizing evaluation questions, designing evaluation research, and interpreting evaluation findings • Falls under various names • Logic model, program model, outcome line, cause map, and action theory

  4. Components of Program Theory • Impact Theory • Assumptions about the change process and improved conditions that are expected to result • Service utilization plan • Program’s assumptions and expectations • Organizational plan • Program resources, personnel, administration, and general organization

  5. Eliciting Program Theory • Articulated program theory • Well understood by staff and stakeholders • Define boundaries of program • Implicit program theory • Presumed and not fully articulated and recorded • Must be explicated • New program • prior practice and research • Existing program • Successive approximation

  6. Explicating the Program Theory • Primary sources of information • Review program documents • Interviews with program stakeholders • Site visits and observation • Social science literature • Three types of useful information • Goals and objectives • Must be integrated into description of program theory

  7. Contd. • Program functions, Components, and Activities • Identified and linked • Represent elements of program process theory • Description of program theory must be corroborated with realistic picture • Examination of discrepancy is task of process or implementation evaluation

  8. Assessing Program Theory • Outside of evaluability assessment literature, little written on assessment • Certain critical tests to provide assurance • Relation to Social Needs • Requires judgment call • Specificity • Logic and Plausibility • Panel of reviewers • Unstructured and open-ended process

  9. Contd. • Comparison with Research and Practice • Examine evaluations of programs based on similar concepts • Basic research on social/psychological processes • Applied research literature • Via Preliminary Observation • Provides reality check • Focus on interactions with production expectations and intended outcomes • Examine circumstances of target population • Observations and interviews relating to program resources and activities

  10. Possible Outcomes of Program Theory Assessment • Program Reconceptualization • Ambiguity • Program process theory ill-defined • Black box evaluation • Inadequate specification of program impact theory • Well-defined and well-justified program theory

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