Program Evaluation Basics

FHOP Planning Guide Chapter 4 “Developing Objectives, Performance Measures, and an Action Plan” (pdf)

The Planning Cycle Step 5: Develop Objectives and Performance Measures

CDC Healthy Youth! Program Evaluation Resources:

    • Brief 13 Data Collection Methods for Program Evaluation: Focus Groups pdf 153K, text 5K
    • Brief 14 Data Collection Methods for Program Evaluation: Questionnaires pdf 220K, text 5K
    • Brief 15 Checklist to Evaluate the Quality of Questions pdf 152K, text 5K
    • Brief 16 Data Collection Methods for Program Evaluation: Observation pdf 204K, text 7K
   •  Brief 17 Data Collection Methods for Program Evaluation: Interviews pdf 178K, text 10K
    • Brief 18 Data Collection Methods for Program Evaluation: Document Review pdf 166K, text 10K

Other Evaluation Resources from CDC

CDC Health Workplace Health Promotion - Survey format options
It is important to select an evalution method that works for the particular organization, as response rates and honesty will contribute to meaningful information for program and policy decisions. This table offers detailed pros and cons for each potential format.

W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook
A thorough handbook that provides a framework for thinking about evaluation as a relevant and useful program tool.

The Community Toolbox – Evaluating the Initiative
This part of the Community Tool Box provides a framework and supports for developing an evaluation of a community program or initiative. It includes an outline for evaluating the initiative; an outline with Community Toolbox resources; examples of evaluating the initiative; quick tips and tools; and online evaluation resources.

Sample Evaluation Tools

Rand Surveys and Tools

Safe Sleep Observation Assessment Tool from National Association for the Education of Young Children

Assessment tools from YMCA
Community Healthy Living Index (CHLI) contains assessments for six key community settings: afterschool child care sites, early childhood programs, neighborhoods, schools, work sites, and the community at large. Each assessment contains questions about policies and practices that support healthy lifestyles; each question provides a "best practice" or improvement idea for sites to implement. Tools are available in English and Spanish.

CDC Measuring Bullying Victimization, Perpetration, and Bystander Experiences: A Compendium of Assessment Tools
<<CDC/Violence Prevention >> 
Bullying, particularly among school-age children, is a major public health problem. This compendium provides researchers, prevention specialists, and health educators with tools to measure a range of bullying experiences: bully perpetration, bully victimization, bully-victim experiences, and bystander experiences.

CDC Youth Violence: Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes, Behaviors, and Influences Among Youths: A Compendium of Assessment Tools - Second Edition
This compendium provides researchers and prevention specialists with a set of tools to assess violence-related beliefs, behaviors, and influences, as well as to evaluate programs to prevent youth violence.

National Resource Center for Community Based Child Abuse Prevention Evaluation Toolkit and Logic Model Builder
The Evaluation Toolkit was developed to help program managers, administrators and interested others develop and implement evaluation processes that will be useful in day-to-day practice, and to help provide evidence that their programs make meaningful differences to children and families. The Toolkit is meant to be a resource for developing an individualized evaluation plan from the ground up. In addition, with the Federal Government’s greater emphasis on demonstrating the effectiveness and efficiency for all programs, including child abuse prevention, the toolkit is an important resource to help States and local programs meet increased demands for accountability.

Annie E. Casey Foundation Handbook of Data Collections Tools
<<Organizational Research Services>>
Practical advice for capturing and documenting influences and leverage in a Making Connections community. This guide provides clarification, concrete examples and suggested approaches for documentation of these often elusive concepts.

Public Communication Campaign Evaluation: An Environmental Scan of Challenges, Criticisms, Practice, and Opportunities
This report presents what has been happening in the field of public communication campaign evaluation in recent years. It examines evaluation challenges, criticisms, and practice and includes sections on relevant theory, outcomes, and useful methods for designing evaluations. It ends with opportunities for the road ahead.

Performance Measurement for Public Health Policy
APHA and the Public Health Foundation (PHF) have worked collaboratively to develop this tool to help health departments and their partners assess and improve the performance of their policy activities. While other performance measurement and evaluation guides exist, this is the first tool to focus explicitly on performance measurement for public health policy.

    • Download the tool
    • Download the template that health departments can fill-in with their own activities and measures.

Assessing the Impact of Community Awareness Campaigns

Knight Foundation “Impact: A Practical Guide to Evaluating Community Information Projects”

CDC Research to Practice: Building Our Understanding
The series of reports focus on health communication with various audiences and marketing practices to guide communities with the implementation of environmental change strategies to support healthy lifestyles. Research is compiled from expert interviews, marketing and communication science in books and articles, Internet, and CDC-licensed consumer databases.

    • Cultural Insights – Communication with Hispanic/Latinos
    • Key Concepts of Evaluation – Applying Theory in the Evaluation of Communication Campaigns
    • Key Concepts of Evaluation – What is it and how do you do it?
    • Social Marketing on a Dime – Using Social Media to Do More with Less

Social Media Campaigns and Evaluation Tools

The Health Communicator’s Social Media Toolkit
The CDC's Social Media Toolkit is designed to help you get started in social media by providing information for developing governance for social media, determining which channels will best meet your communication objectives, and helping you create a social media strategy.

Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America - Social Media Digital Primer
Includes many resources, includes a discussion of digital interaction, detailed descriptions of social engagement tools, metrics and measures for social media, and social media resources. Here is a direct link to “Ways to measure social media engagement”

Survey Tools
Survey Monkey
Zoomerang
Poll Daddy
Poll Everywhere

Twitter Metric Tools
Twitalyzer
Tweet Grader

Web page analytics
Google Analytics

Evaluating Collaboratives 

• Coalition Evaluation Webinar - From the CDC
• Partnership Self-Assessment Tool Questionnaire - This questionnaire asks questions about different aspects of your partnership. It will take about 15 minutes to complete.
• Review of Community Health Partnerships Self Assessment Checklist for Partners - The checklist sets out some of the issues around partnership working. NHS boards and councils should use this checklist with CHPs and other health and social care partnerships to assess themselves against each statement as appropriate and consider which statement most accurately reflects their current situation. This will enable NHS boards, councils and other partners to identify what actions need to be taken forward.
• Tools for Building Clinic-Community Partnership to Support Chronic Disease Control and Prevention
• ACPS Plus/Delta Template - This quality tool provides a simple method for individuals or teams to engage in reflection as an approach to continuous improvement. The +/∆ evaluation can help inform the changes needed to achieve higher levels of performance.
• Developing Effective Coalitions: An Eight Step Guide - From the Prevention Institute 
• Collaboration Multiplier: Enhancing the Effectiveness of Multi-Field Collaboration - an interactive tool for strengthening collaborative efforts across diverse fields, from the Prevention Institute.
• Evaluating Collaboratives Reaching the Potential - A "work in progress" manual that grew out of ideas and discussions and continues to grow as their understanding of collaboratives increases. From the University of Wisconsin.
• Collaboration for a Change - Definitions, Deciscion-making models, Roles, and Collaboration Process Guide. From Arthur T. Himmelman of Himmelman Consulting 
• Community Collaborative Toolkit - A Toolbox Overview for Building Needle-Moving Community Collaborations
• community Health Partnerships: Tools and Information for Development and Support - Developed by the National Business Coalition on Health and the Community Coalitions Health Institute with support from a Cooperative Agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, and the National Association of City and County Health Officials