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Program Evaluation

For school health, evaluation contains two essential concepts. The first concept is that information is carefully and systematically collected. The second concept holds that data are used to make a judgment regarding the object of study, essentially answering the question, “How good (or bad) is this?” An important unstated concept that must be added addresses the goal of evaluation, which, as it pertains to school health, is program improvement.

Program evaluation is commonly divided into three types—formative, process, and summative evaluation. Formative evaluation focuses on the initiating stages of program development and implementation, process evaluation occurs during program implementation, and summative evaluation occurs after the program has been concluded. (As used here, the term program can apply to a discrete initiative, a specific activity, a curriculum, or the entirety of Coordinated School Health, or CSH, in a system.) Evaluation is often driven by a specific question that, if answered, will provide the information needed to guide program improvement efforts. These are called evaluation questions.

School health professionals often shy away from evaluation because of perceived complexity. To be sure, evaluation can be complex but in many circumstances can also be quite simple. The key to how ambitious an evaluation should or could be lies in five criteria:

  • Evaluation addresses key program goals and objectives. Evaluation should be directly tied to explicit programmatic goals and objectives with results indicating if and how well goals and objectives were achieved.
  • Evaluation will generate important and accurate information. Data can be gathered from documents, records, and data systems as well as from knowledgeable individuals.
  • Evaluation will provide information that can be acted upon to make program improvements. Evaluation findings will be of little benefit if they cannot potentially lead to actions for change.
  • Evaluation can be conducted with available resources (e.g., budget, management). Many resources allow for a complex evaluation, while few resources dictate a simple evaluation; even a barebones evaluation can yield important actionable results.
  • Evaluation findings are important to stakeholders (e.g., clients, sponsors, participants). Often, basic evaluation findings, such as simple utilization numbers, are sufficient to provide justification for program retention or allocation of resources.

Formative Evaluation

Formative evaluation increases the probability that program implementation will be successful. It can be used to inform development of new programs and to determine suitability of existing programs for a specific setting and audience. Formative evaluation can be used for the following:

  • Determining the suitability of an existing, evidence-based curriculum for a school setting or determining what would engage and motivate target audience participation in a new program being considered for development
    • For an existing program, program developers examine the support documents, and ask questions of the publisher to find information about the age and developmental level of the intended audience, whether the curriculum was designed and tested for students of a specific demographic, and other factors that could affect suitability. A literature review can provide information about the expected effectiveness of the curriculum.
    • When developing a new program, program developers gather information from members of the target audience to gauge their level of interest in the topic and possible approach. If the purpose is to influence health behavior, having the answers to the following three questions borrowed from social marketing can be helpful: What would make adopting this behavior easy to do? What would make adopting this behavior fun or enjoyable? How will participants know that engaging in this behavior is more common than uncommon? Answers can be incorporated so that engaging in the healthy behavior is perceived as fun, easy and popular.
  • Planning, revising, or modifying a program or curriculum based on pilot testing or needs assessment
    • Pilot testing is simply having representative consumers of a program participate in a trial run and then provide review and comment.
    • Needs assessment involves a systematic audit of the present status of a school district CSH or CSH components, such as health education, and use of audit data to determine what needs to be accomplished to enhance the quality of the CSH support system or individual CSH components.
  • Determining the feasibility of program implementation
    • Estimates of the short- and long-term costs of acquiring, initiating, and maintaining a new curriculum or program and professional development requirements will determine if a school district has sufficient resources.

Examples of Formative Evaluation Questions

  • Is the XYZ bullying prevention program distributed by ABC, Inc., suitable for our middle school students and feasible for our school to implement given available resources?
  • What features do we need to include in an employee physical activity program in order to maximize participation?
  • Based on the reaction of the pilot group of employees to the draft physical activity program, what should we retain, revise, add, or jettison to maximize participation?
  • Are in-service days available to provide teachers with the professional development needed to implement an effective relational violence prevention curriculum?

Examples of Formative Evaluation Methods

Content Analysis

Consumers or experts review a program plan, program components, or curriculum to ensure that the content is appropriate, relevant and well organized, and the proposed strategies are effective.

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