Hi all,
I recently came across an interesting website,
The Evaluation Toolkit (
http://toolkit.pellinstitute.org/) that provides a resources related to program evaluation for pre-college outreach programs. The Toolkit contains articles, an evaluation guide, evaluation examples, and references to resources for program evaluation.
About this Tool - The Purpose of the Evaluation Toolkit
This Evaluation Toolkit is designed to strengthen the capacity of pre-college outreach programs to collect and apply evaluation data to improving program outcomes. Outreach programs serve as an important gateway to postsecondary education for underserved students by providing college planning, preparation, and support services. The lack of rigorous and reliable evaluation by most outreach programs, however, is a significant barrier to increasing program effectiveness, comparing data across programs, and documenting program outcomes to maintain and grow funding.
This Evaluation Toolkit has two purposes.
The first goal is to develop a freely accessible, research-based Evaluation Toolkit that will enable outreach programs to more readily and systematically use data and outcome measures to improve service delivery.
The second goal is to promote research that will identify effective program models across outreach programs and document the collective impact of programs by using the evaluation data generated through the common assessment framework in the Toolkit.
About the Toolkit - The Pell Institute and Pathways to College Network
The Evaluation Toolkit is housed at The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education,whose mission is to conduct and disseminate research and policy analysis to encourage policymakers, educators, and the public to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for low-income, first-generation students and students with disabilities. The Pell Institute is the first research institute to specifically address the issues impacting educational opportunity for this growing population. To examine these issues, the Pell Institute conducts independent research in three areas: access, success, and innovation.
I would be interested in hearing about additional models and resources that program managers use for evaluating their programs? What frameworks have you found most beneficial as you develop and implement an evaluation plan for your program?
Gail Cope, SME, LINCS Program Management Group
