Critique of a Program Evaluation

Assignment 2: Critique of a Program Evaluation

This is an individual assignment in which you willreview ahealth program evaluation and then critically assess the approach to the work, especially in terms of its strengths and weaknesses. This assignment is worth 25% of your final grade.

For this assignment you will:

1. Select a published health program evaluation to review. You must identify a major evaluation of a health program (or policy) that has been implemented in the public or non-profit sector. The evaluation should be from a reputable governmental (e.g., Fraser Health, Health Canada) or non-profit organization (e.g., Canadian Cancer Society, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada) and be available for download on the internet. Ideally, you will select an evaluation that is methodologically interesting and extensive in the data it provides.

The following link may provide guidance for selecting an organization:

Canada’s Top 100 Non-Profit Organizations

2. Critically assess the approach to the work. To assess the evaluation, you will need to draw on course materials and apply your critical thinking skills. You should start by preparing a brief overview of the program (200-400 words)that describes the following: treatment (e.g., program, activities), target population, intended benefits, causal model/program logic/theory. You should then critique the evaluation itself (using the bullet points below as a guide).

The following links provide guidance for critiquing evaluations:

Checklist for Program Evaluation Report Content

Evaluation Report Checklist

Some areas you may which to consider commenting on in your critique might include:

Background

• What is the purpose of the evaluation? Is it clearly stated?
• Does the literature review provide context, background, and direction for the evaluation?
• Are the evaluation questions clearly stated? Are they appropriate? Answerable?

Design and Methods

• Is thetheoretical framework (or logic model) presented? Is it appropriate?
• What an appropriate type of evaluation conducted (quantitative, formative, etc.)?
• What sampling procedures were used and why? Was the sample size sufficient?
• What measures and instruments were used? Were they valid, reliable, and appropriate?
• What kind of data analysis was done? Were the statistics appropriate for the questions?
• Were the data analysis procedures described clearly and accurately?

Results and Discussion

• What were the program evaluation’s findings? Were they described clearly and accurately?
• How were results presented? Are graphs, tables, figures labeled and easily understood?
• Are the most important results appropriately summarized and interpreted?
• Are any other interpretations possible? Were questions not addressed adequately?
• Were the recommendations and conclusions grounded in and supported by the findings?
• Was the evaluation conducted in an objective manner? Is there any evidence of bias?
• Are there limitations to the generalizability of the findings?
• Are appropriate strengths and limitations discussed in enough detail?
• Are any strengths or limitations missing?

The written critique should be between 5-7 double-spaced pages (excluding title page, references) using 1 inch margins and 12 point, Times New Roman font. If necessary, be sure to cite all documents using American Psychological Association (APA) format.

3. Present the major evaluation findings. At the end of the semester, you will develop a 15 minute (+/- 2 minutes) oral presentation. The presentation should be prepared as though you are briefing an audience of stakeholders (e.g., decision makers, funders, policymakers).

The presentation should include: a title slide, outline (1 slide), program summary (2-4 slides), research design and conclusions (e.g., evaluation questions, data sources, type of evaluation) (5-7 slides), and critique (2-4 slides).

Submit your assignment (paper and powerpoint presentation)to the dropbox folder on the Moodle course website. Your assignment should use the following naming protocol: FirstnameLastname_Assign2. Only submit files in Word version (not as pages version).