Test your Knowledge with this Exercise!

You may want to go through all of the information in Stage 1 before you work through this exercise.

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After your evaluation data have been collected and analyzed, you are ready to sit down with your evaluator and discuss the findings. This involves both discussing the specific results from the analyses your evaluator conducted as well as putting the pieces together to summarize "what it all means."

Putting the pieces together entails not only interpreting individual findings (for example, the proportion of participants who complete the program), but also placing individual findings in context (for example, examining completion rates alongside information on participant reactions and outcomes) in an effort to tell a complete and coherent story and draw conclusions about how the program is working and the effects it may be having on participants.

In order to effectively interpret evaluation findings, your evaluator will need to have conducted a series of scientifically sound quantitative and qualitative data analyses that align with the evaluation questions that you and your stakeholders have articulated.

Learn more about

• Establishing your role during interpreting findings
• Statistical significance
• Attrition
• Creating a storyline

Other Resources

• Muraskin, L. (1993). Understanding evaluation: The way to better prevention programs. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education
• Significance in Statistics and Surveys, The Survey System
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation. The Program Manager's Guide to Evaluation Glossary.