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Evaluation : A Program Model, Feedback and an Example of Planned Results

Project Evaluator: Elizabeth Powers Costello, Saxapahaw, NC, 27340

Objectives of the Program

1. After participating in the educational program, a total of 25 extension agents, 20 farmer partners and 10 non-profit group partners (from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico) will have become informed about issues.  They will then return home and will conduct educational outreach programs in their counties or with their constituents so that 500 farmers will be knowledgeable about marketing livestock and livestock products in North and South Carolina, Virginia, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.

2. Of that number, After participating in the educational program at least 10 extension faculty, 15 farmer partners and 3 non profit group partners who work specifically with limited resource farmers will have become informed about issues and will conduct educational outreach programs in their counties or with their constituents so that 100 limited resource farmers will be knowledgeable about marketing livestock and livestock products in North and South Carolina, Virginia Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands.

After participating in the educational program 15 sustainable agriculture coordinators or their designated representatives along with 15 partners will bring the information to their states/ territories for dissemination so that at least 2000 additional producers across the Southern region will be able to market livestock and livestock products in a more knowledgeable way or are able to dialogue with regulators and legislators about rules and regulations governing such marketing.

            Evaluation will be conducted to address each of the objectives as well as to monitor for unexpected outcomes. The project will assist program participants to monitor and report outcomes in their states and territories in so far as possible. Indeed, training in the use of the Program Logic Model and evaluation planning are integral to the train-the-trainer sessions and implementation across the south.

Goals

The goal of this final part of the program is to emphasize the importance of evaluation for showing results or impacts of our educational program, to receive feed back from you as a way o f evaluating our program, share our evaluation model and a pattern with you so that you will be able to report longer term results from this program after you disseminate it to your Extension field faculty.

• Review Program Logic Model (Revisit handout form beginning session from http://www.uwex.edu/ces/pdande/evaluation/evallogicmodel.html)
• Develop an Evaluation Plan. Review the connection of the Evaluation Plan to the Program Logic Model. Select indicators of success. Consider the Development of an Evaluation Crosswalk
• Fill out an evaluation of this program itself as a model for the evaluation process..

Evaluation and reporting are two major aspects of any Extension educational program. We showed in the Program Logic Model.  Let’s bring that back out and point through the steps of the process. Our challenge as educators is to make sure that all the connections are made and that we can see results and show them to So we need to be able to go all the way to the end of the logic model and project expected results. Since we usually want to help producers/ marketers increase their income (after we have trained our agents and they in turn educate producers in successful marketing of livestock products); we should say something like:

An evaluation process to be able to show the results as planned above must itself be planned. Valid reports don’t just happen. They don’t happen when we think about them at the last minute. They must be planned well in advance so that the ways of collecting the evidence are identified and that the evidence is collected when it is appropriate. To do this we sometimes develop what is known as an Evaluation Crosswalk. Evaluation Crosswalks are maps of our evaluation process.

Here is an evaluation cross walk as an example. There are two steps to developing an evaluation crosswalk. The first step is taking the planned results and turning them into questions. The second step is identifying the evidence that could be used to show that the results were achieved.

Example of a Pro-forma Evaluation Crosswalk

For an Extension Educational Program on
Marketing of Livestock Products

Question	1. Agenda and Sign in sheet for the meeting	2. Pre/ Post Test of knowledge gained	3. Extension Reporting System Success Stories	4. Agent Follow-up interview with producers/ marketers
To what extent did producers/ marketers gain knowledge of successful livestock product marketing?	X	X
To what extent did producers/ marketers gain income form successful livestock product marketing as a result of participation in Extension educational meetings?	X			X

The Evaluation Crosswalk is a plan. You would have to use this to make sure that you would be able to report the results you want to see. For this example, that means making sure that you can get copies of the agendas and sign-in sheets for the Extension educational program meetings on the topic of marketing meat and other livestock products. You would have to plan a test of knowledge gained. You would have to remind the agents to follow up after the meeting (for example, one year later) to get an estimate of the income made in marketing meat or other livestock products.

None of these steps can be relied on to happen unless they are planned even if the agent keeps up on the attendance at meetings, someone has to plan to get the information for use in the reporting the results of the planned educational program.

The evaluation of our program here.

We need to evaluate our program here. Our questions are similar to the ones listed in the Evaluation Crosswalk above except that they are about this train-the-trainer program.  Please fill out the Evaluation Form and pass it in before you leave. Thank you.

Tools needed for this session

• Flip Chart and Markers
• Future Steps Map
• Evaluation Form
• Program Logic Model
• Evaluation Crosswalk

Evaluation Form

Producer marketing of livestock products

A Southern Region SARE PDP Project

June 23, 2005

Extension (or other) Job Title:

State/ Territory:

1. Do you have a better understanding of how to address the issue of assisting producers to market their livestock products as a result of this meeting?  Yes  NO. Why?

2. Did you gain skills in:

• the process of conveying the information:
• The program logic model
• Evaluation planning and implementation

3. Do you have a better sense of the issues to be addressed in an educational program addressing producers marketing of livestock products?  YES  NO  Why?

4. Will you use the program as offered to train agents?  YES NO  How will you modify it or what will you use for the training of agents and others to assist producers to market livestock products?

5. What session was of the greatest use?

6. Which session was of the least use? How could it be improved?

7. What resources were of the greatest use?

8. Which resources were of the least use?  How could they be improved?

9. What further assistance do you need in order to offer a train the trainer educational program in your home state/territory to assist with the marketing of livestock products?

10. When do you plan to conduct your train the trainer program in your state/ territory?

11. Additional comments:

THANK YOU!