You and your evaluator together – with your program expertise, and your evaluator's analysis of evaluation data – will come up with a "storyline" that you understand and are comfortable conveying to various audiences interested in your evaluation findings.
Provider Roles and Responsibilities
- Ask questions to ensure the quantitative and qualitative analyses found are clear
- Help the evaluator "fill in the blanks" regarding why certain results may have been found
- Request additional analyses to explore particular findings or test new hypotheses
- Clarify expected reaction/how to address reaction of stakeholders
- Change program elements based on evaluation results as needed (for example, curriculum, service delivery strategy, etc.)
Evaluator Roles and Responsibilities
- Present findings from quantitative and qualitative analyses pertaining to each evaluation question
- Present findings in a way that is easy for the provider to understand
- Present findings on program implementation and immediate outcomes frequently enough to allow the provider to make program improvements
- Inform the provider of problems with data quality that may have affected findings
- Answer questions the provider may have about the findings; ensure they understand what the findings mean and don't mean
- Solicit the provider's insights as to why these findings were obtained
Joint Responsibilities
- Develop a "storyline" that integrates all findings (quantitative and qualitative) pertaining to program implementation, participation, outcomes, and impacts in a way that clearly, accurately, and completely captures evaluation findings
- Generate hypotheses on why the findings were (or were not) expected
- Discuss how to convey these findings to various stakeholders
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.