In program evaluation, goals, objectives, and the evaluation process work together to provide a team with insights into the success of a program. In this post, we will look at the synergy between these concepts and how they help evaluators of programs.
Goals & Objectives
Goals are long-term ideas that provide a general sense of direction for a program. Usually, goals are not measurable or achievable but rather serve an inspirational purpose in shaping the direction of a program. An example of a goal for a project might be
Increase the degree of reading comprehension among young children in north Texas
The goal above is a goal because it lacks the details of knowing when this goal is achieved. What does “degree” mean or how much “increase” is necessary? How are “young children” defined? How much time does the program have to achieve any of this? All of these questions and more are addressed when developing objectives.
Objectives are short-term, measurable, achievable, and set guidelines for the type of intervention that a program will provide. Objectives provide the details that are missing from goals. There are different acronyms for developing objectives such as SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound). Another format for objectives that is used in curriculum development is action, condition, and proficiency. Below is an example of an objective that is derived from the example goal mentioned earlier.
By the end of the semester, minority students in the 5th grade class will improve their reading comprehension one grade level through using the reading lab software.
The objective above specifies a clear context (End of semester, 5th-grade minority students). The objective also provides the action or what the students will be doing (using reading software). Lastly, there is a clear sense of knowing when success takes place (one grade-level improvement in reading comprehension). It is also important to show that this objective is linked to the original goal of increasing reading comprehension.
Types of Objectives
Within program evaluation, three types of objectives can be developed. These are process, outcome, and impact objectives.
Process objectives define which activities will be carried out during a program. Process objectives provide evidence that the program did what it planned to do. An example is below.
Enroll all minority students into the reading lab be the end of the first month of school.
It may seem silly to make such an objective but doing so helps to keep the program on track and to make interventions if the objectives are not achieved in the timeline that was set.
Outcome objectives measure the results of an intervention and answer the question “How well did we do?” Below is an example
By the end of the semester, 90% of the minority students in the 5th grade class will improve their reading comprehension one grade level through using the reading lab software.
The objective above is similar to others but now it has a clear metric for success stipulating the 90% threshold. This objective value helps to determine how well the program did in helping the students.
The last type of objective used in program evaluation is the impact objective. This objective measures the collective results of an intervention and answers the question “So what?” Below is an example.
At the end of the semester, the students will share what they think of the reading program
The objective above is one way in which the overall impact of the program can be assessed by determining what the target population thinks of the intervention.
Evaluation plan
The evaluation plan is linked with the objectives. The evaluation plan assesses the achievement of the program through the use of the results of the objectives. Just as there are three types of objectives there are also three types of data that are collected for an evaluation and these are process, outcome, and impact data.
Process data is documentation of the implementation of the strategies of the program and assesses what happened. Examples of process data can include a spreadsheet showing the number of kids who were enrolled in the reading lab. Such documentation shows that the process of enrolling the kids was completed.
Outcome data is a measure of the success or failure of a program. An example of outcome data would be a spreadsheet showing how many kids were able to improve one grade level in their reading comprehension from the use of the reading lab.
Lastly, impact data is data for the impact objective. An example would be the results of the survey that measures students’ opinions of the reading lab.
Conclusion
What was learned here was the cooperation that needs to take place between goals, objectives, and the evaluation process. When these concepts are working together it can benefit all stakeholders of a particular program.