1. INTRODUCTION TO THE TOOLKIT

   • About the Toolkit
   • Toolkit Contents
   • Using the Toolkit
   • Case Study Background

2. INTRODUCTION TO EVALUATION

   • Defining Evaluation
   • Purpose of Evaluation
   • Types of Evaluation
   • Challenges to Conducting an Evaluation

   • Who Should Conduct the Evaluation

     • Assessing Readiness
     • Using a Team Approach
     • Using External Evaluators

   • Considerations for Planning

     • Human Subjects Protections
     • Cultural Competency
     • Budgeting for Evaluation
     • Working with Funders

   • Framework for Evaluation

     • Framework Components
     • Evaluation Standards

3. PLAN YOUR EVALUATION

   • Step 1: Engage Stakeholders

     • Engage Stakeholders
     • Identifying Key Stakeholders
     • Engaging Stakeholders
     • Tools and Resources

   • Step 2: Develop a Logic Model

     • Develop a Logic Model
     • What is a Program Description?
     • Introducing Logic Models
     • Creating a Logic Model for Evaluation
     • Tools and Resources

   • Step 3: Focus the Evaluation

     • Focus the Evaluation
     • Decide What to Evaluate
     • Develop Evaluation Questions
     • What Are Indicators?
     • Start the Evaluation Plan
     • Tools and Resources

   • Step 4a: Plan Data Collection

     • Plan Data Collection
     • Identify Data Sources
     • Select Data Collection Methods
     • Tools and Resources

   • Finalize Your Evaluation Plan

     • Identify the Person Responsible and a Timeline
     • Review Your Evaluation Plan
     • Tools and Resources

4. IMPLEMENT YOUR EVALUATION

   • Introduction
   • Review Your Evaluation Plan

   • Step 4b: Collect Data

     • Design Data Collection Instruments
     • Additional Considerations in Data Collection
     • Tools and Resources

   • Step 5: Analyze and Interpret Data

     • Analyze and Interpret Data
     • Organize the Data
     • Analyze the Data and Synthesize Results
     • Interpret the Results
     • Identify Limitations
     • Tools and Resources

   • Step 6: Share Results

     • Share Results
     • Develop Recommendations
     • Communicate the Findings
     • Follow-up
     • Tools and Resources

TOOLS:Worksheets|Glossary

Prioritize Evaluation Questions

Typically, an evaluation will be not be able to answer all of the questions you and your stakeholders have about your program or organization. Therefore, you will want to determine which questions are the most important for your evaluation to answer at this time.

After you have brainstormed your evaluation questions, you can initially rate them based on the following two criteria to inform your decision about which questions to focus on:

1. If this question is answered by the evaluation, how useful will that information be to various stakeholder groups?
   
   and
   
   
2. Can this question even be answered at this time, given the stage of the program or organization?

Worksheet 3b: Prioritize Evaluation Questions
In ERC Worksheet 3 – Evaluation Questions, list each question you brainstormed, and prioritize questions as low, medium or high priority based on the criteria. Again, it will be important to hear from stakeholders about which questions are their highest priorities. You might even send the list of questions to various stakeholders to get their feedback. Based on these ratings, circle or highlight your highest priority evaluation questions; you will be referring back to them in the next worksheet.

Click on the PDF documents in the sidebar to see examples of how this step was completed for our case study sites.