Toolkit
  1. INTRODUCTION TO THE TOOLKIT

  2. INTRODUCTION TO EVALUATION

  3. PLAN YOUR EVALUATION

  4. IMPLEMENT YOUR EVALUATION

Additional Considerations to Finalize Indicators

Generally, about three or four indicators per evaluation question are sufficient. If you find you have more than four indicators per evaluation question, it may mean that your evaluation question is too broad or complicated and should be broken down into multiple questions.

People typically think of indicators as answering evaluation questions with quantitative data—things that can be counted or expressed in numbers. But sometimes, qualitative data—information this is descriptive or expressed in words—are needed to fully understand a story. An example of a quantitative indicator is the number of students graduating from high school. An example of a qualitative indicator is the level of support from decision makers for a proposed policy. Generally, using both quantitative and qualitative evidence is best to answer program evaluation questions, allowing for a richer understanding of the data.

Many programs are similar in nature, and therefore other organizations may have already developed indicators that you could use or adapt. For example, some CDC programs have developed lists of indicators that are linked to their major activities and outcomes. Many of these indicators have been pre-tested and proven relevant and accurate, as well as link to specific data sources that you may be able to use. Further, by using common indicators, you can compare your program to similar ones.

ERC Worksheet 4: Developing Indicators, continued
EXERCISE: Use the listed criteria to rate your indicators. Note: As you begin to develop indicators, you may realize that some of your evaluation questions are not feasible to include—to collect them would involve time, resources, data, or expertise that you do not have. You may choose to revisit your evaluation questions to make sure you can feasibly answer them, though, remember there are many indicators that you could select for any given question. If a question is important to answer, consider whether there are indicators you could feasibly collect data on that could be a proxy. These may not be the strongest indicators, but you want to make sure you at least begin to answer the most important evaluation questions.

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