The Importance of Evaluating Your Education Programs

Evaluator's Corner

The Importance of Evaluating Your Education Programs
by Triste Brooks, Cory Neering, and Maria Kulp

Over the past six years, the education and outreach department's budget at Planned Parenthood of the Palm Beach and Treasure Coast Area (PPPBTC) exploded from a $200,000 to just shy of $3 million. We operate four after school programs based on the highly esteemed Carrera model, incorporating education, job training, mental health, medical services, sports, creative arts, along with sexual health; La Promesa, a national award-winning Latino outreach program, dramatically increasing the number of Latinos/Hispanics receiving services at our health centers; Teen Time® serves over 12,000 youth and is the only reproductive health program in our area designed for teens; Adult Role Models, based on the Planned Parenthood of New York City program, where we work with six subcontracted agencies to train parents of all ethnicities to be the primary sexuality educator of their youth and in turn train other parents; and our FAITH (Faith In Action, Improving Today's Health) program which currently has 19 partnerships with local faith organizations and delivers not only a week long comprehensive sexual health training program, but encourages youth and senior adults to partner on a community service project.

While our board and CEO have been very supportive of the growth of our education programs, our CEO, Lillian Tamayo, was diligent in establishing an evaluation component for all of our programs and sought funding for program outcome evaluation. We are thrilled to report that under her leadership and with the support of our education team, Dr. Susan Philiber, one of the leading evaluators in the field of teen pregnancy prevention, is conducting rigorous program evaluation on six of our programs. We will be using the data both for program review and improvement, as well as with funders to review multi-year outcomes with an eye for increasing funding. This result, fueled by hard work and affiliate resources, did not happen overnight. There have been many setbacks along the way, and the work continues to be a struggle at times.

Six years ago, program evaluation was not our focus— it was viewed as "unnecessary," "a pain," and "un-mission driven." After all, shouldn't we spend ALL of program monies on programming and client needs? Wasn't it common knowledge that evaluation was a waste of time and money? We thought our affiliate was recognized for delivering 30 years of high-quality programs. We were awash with great anecdotal information, and had funders who seemed content to give us money based on snippets of successes. And besides, what would we do with the program data if we collected it?

Today, however, is a new day. Funders are more sophisticated, mandating proof of investment—or better stated, wanting to get a good "bang for their buck." They often require that program proposals have goals and measurable objectives, necessitating reports delineating the process of data collection, as well as the data itself. Some funders even require an independent data collection process. The bottom line is, if you want to grow your department/affiliate, you must build an evaluation component into your programs.

How do you, as the education leader, get others to buy into the importance of this function? In our affiliate, evaluation was seen as a complex process that occurred at certain times in a particular way and almost always included the use of outside experts. Our organization had limited time and resources—how could we possibly evaluate our programs?

Here are some tips for implementing evaluation into your programs:

1.   In very simple terms, frame for staff the importance of evaluation and the integral nature of its function to new or renewed funding. Underscore the inextricable relationship between program design, execution, and outcome. While most staff can grasp this concept, highlighting the "what is in it for me?" principle may be more successful.

2.   Start small. We strongly recommend the PPFA book Measuring Progress: an Introduction to Evaluating Community Programs by Suzanne M. Johnson Vickberg, Ph.D. While this is not the riveting latest top ten best seller, it is very readable and understandable by the lay person (i.e. those of us who did not receive advanced degrees in program evaluation and would much rather run programs than evaluate them). Use the tools in the book to evaluate something as simple as measuring the success of your next health fair. The book helps you define your goals and objectives, choose a method of data collection, measure change, and determine the program impact.

3.   Develop a champion for evaluation on your team. Understand this is a process for the long haul; this is a marathon, not a sprint. Even now, after years of prioritizing evaluation as an organizational focus, we find ourselves periodically experiencing "evaluation-disconnect." Staff turnover, program location change, or lack of administrative follow-up is often at the root of problem. Consequently, we have learned that assigning an individual with unwavering commitment to evaluation is key to keep the organization on track.

4.   Evaluation is a revenue generating tool. Once your team is clear that it is a vehicle to bring money into to your affiliate/department through either new grants or expanded grants, evaluation becomes a necessity, not a bother.

5.   Get help! We have had help from PPFA, and have attended numerous community trainings on program evaluation, goals and objectives setting, and grant writing. Look for anything that will help you develop a skill set for this process.

Thank you to Triste Brooks, COO, Cory Neering, Vice President of Youth Services and Maria Kulp, Vice President of Education at PPPBTC for your contribution and insight!

If you have questions about evaluation, would like assistance, or would like to contribute to Educator's Update by submitting an edition of Evaluator's Corner, please contact Lisa Malley, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 434 West 33rd Street, New York, NY 10001. Phone: 212-261-4628. Fax: 212-247-6269. Email: lisa.malley@ppfa.org.