Browsing by Subject "Program Evaluation"
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Item Evaluating Gender-Transformative Programming in Humanitarian Aid(2024-05-01) Andrada , Paxton; Bhor, Shweta; Khalil, Malak; Wright, AlishiaSince the United Nations Resolution 1325 was passed, the humanitarian community has developed guidelines and tools to assist practitioners in designing and implementing more gender-sensitive and gender-inclusive programs. However, in practice, the operationalization of gender-inclusive approaches is often pro forma, peripheral, or an add-on to existing and predetermined programming efforts. This research project, undertaken in partnership with the Women's Refugee Commission (WRC), a leading organization committed to addressing the unique needs of women, children, and youth displaced by conflict and crisis, seeks to determine the barriers faced by program staff when implementing gender-transformative programming. The study includes a desk review of existing literature regarding this kind of programming in humanitarian aid, and qualitative interviews with gender experts in the aid sector to fill in any gaps found in the literature. Through the desk review, there are two cluster focuses, food security and sexual and reproductive health, along with two crisis focuses, the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and internally displaced peoples in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The desk review was used to formulate the interview guide for the expert interviews. Based on the findings of the literature review, case studies and the interviews, we formulated recommendations to implement effective gender-transformative programs.Item Evaluation Capacity Building Towards Developing a Special Education System in a Large Midwestern School District(2016-06) Sterner Sampers, CamilleAbstract This study researched the continued practice of evaluation capacity building (ECB) in an educational context, specifically the special education department of a large Midwestern school district. This descriptive and exploratory study studied the activities, processes, and outcomes of ECB that followed King’s case study (2002) fifteen years later. The Two-County School District was very large (e.g., geography, number of schools, student enrollment) and, as a result, had extensive resources for ECB, which included access to evaluation experts and data tools for sophisticated data use. The breadth and depth of the resources in this large school district put them in a positive place, where the Director of Special Education and other special education evaluation champions did the work of ECB, using the expanded and modified program evaluation model and process that Campbell initiated in 1999 to 2001. Galles, the district’s evaluation leader since 2007, contributed to ECB as the district’s highly skilled evaluation leader. Her evaluation leadership and expertise as well as the technical assistance from the Department of Research, Evaluation, and Assessment positively supported the special education department’s ECB projects. Taylor, the Director of Special Education (2009 – 2013), and several special education evaluation champions demonstrated a strong ECB vision and commitment to achieve change and improve the quality of special education programs. An evaluation leader, committed evaluation champions at multiple levels, dedicated resources, and clear communication are critical to lead and sustain ECB efforts.Item Flattening the Eviction Curve: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of the Brooklyn Center Tenant Protection Ordinance(2024-02-29) Gramlich, JackThis paper uses two quasi-experimental methods—synthetic control (SC) and difference-in-differences (DiD)—to evaluate the effects of the 2022 Brooklyn Center Tenant Protection Ordinance. The ordinance was adopted at a time when eviction filings were on the rise across the state. Descriptive statistics provide an indication that after the ordinance was adopted, Brooklyn Center’s eviction rate did not increase by as much as the eviction rate in other parts of suburban Hennepin County. For SC models, I compared Brooklyn Center to most other Hennepin County cities. I found statistically significant evidence that the ordinance reduced eviction rates in the period 37-48 weeks after policy adoption. This result survived several placebo tests (though it was sensitive to whether Brooklyn Park was included in the donor pool). Results for filing rates did not survive all placebo tests. For DiD, I drew from a sample of most block groups in suburban Hennepin County. Conditioning on pre-treatment covariates via doubly robust DiD, I found the policy brought reduced eviction rates and filing rates in some of the first eight months after policy adoption. DiD models survived a wide variety of robustness checks. SC and DiD provided consistent evidence of reduced eviction rates in some periods of time. The two methods produced mixed evidence on filing rates, and did not produce strong evidence of policy effects for other outcomes. This paper concludes that when evictions spiked across Minnesota following the expiration of COVID-19 eviction moratorium policies, the City of Brooklyn Center flattened the eviction curve.Item Gage East: Using Developmental Evaluation to Support Innovation in Housing Services(2017) Sandfort, Jodi; Sarode, TruptiWhen a community wants to develop new services for homeless youth and young families, what is really involved? Olmsted County and Center City Housing Corporation set out to fully explore this question as collaborators. Beginning in 2012, they identified the necessary components to a successful service: who to serve, where the housing services will be, how it will be funded over time, and who else would be good partners in this effort. Yet, to do this effectively, there were many questions yet to be answered that required a collaborative, continuous approach. The Future Services Institute (FSI) at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs worked with Olmsted County Community Services, Center City Housing Corporation and other partners, using a developmental evaluation design to help them frame the project, track its development, identify issues as they surface, and test quick iterations in problem solving.Item Global Mamas Final Capstone Report 2019-2020(2020-05) Carlson, Gunnar; Dimore, Kidist; Masterpole, Zoë; Nurmatova, Nasiba; Scarborough, DarrylItem Improving Evaluation Practice in the Foundation Sector: A Case Study of the Jim Joseph Foundation's Evaluators' Consortium(2015-05) Reich, CynthiaThe purpose of this study was to explore what occurred when a foundation inaugurated an innovative approach to evaluation practice, examining factors that supported and impeded successful implementation. It sought to provide insights into the elements of organizational culture and structures that can support effective practices of evaluation in the foundation sector. The study was a case study of the Evaluators' Consortium, an experimental initiative of the Jim Joseph Foundation, the purpose of which was to improve the Foundation's use of evaluation to support its strategy. The Foundation worked with representatives of four evaluation firms over the course of a year in an emergent style. As the experiment unfolded, the Consortium members helped to shape the cross-community evaluation of the Foundation's multi-year initiative of community-based, Jewish teen education and engagement. Factors that supported the success of the Consortium included the Foundation's standing approach to evaluation, its willingness to take risks, its culture of learning, and its commitment to field building. Leadership was another important factor. The Foundation's professional leader, his commitment to the initiative in particular and to evaluation in general, and his ability to cultivate relationships with others played important roles in the initiative's success. Also critical was the intellectual leadership of Lee Shulman. Another supporting factor was the benefit to the evaluators that came with participation in the initiative. Challenges included logistics, the power differential between the Foundation and participating evaluators, having emergent goals, and bringing together representatives of competing organizations in a cooperative situation. The initiative produced several outcomes for the Foundation and the evaluators. The Foundation developed a number of new evaluation practices and clarified its ideas about effective evaluation practices. Foundation staff members and evaluators developed capacity. Relationships were strengthened between Foundation staff and evaluators and among evaluators and their firms. The initiative created relationships among competitors who entered into collaboration with one another. Through its success with the Consortium, the Foundation was emboldened to consider other new approaches to evaluation. Finally, as a result of the Consortium's work, the Foundation introduced evaluators and high quality evaluation practices to other funders and communities.Item Inclusive Evaluation: Conducting Program Evaluations With Individuals With Cognitive Disabilities(2015-07) Maynard, AmeliaIndividuals with cognitive disabilities (IWCD), such as developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injuries and dementia, make up over 4% of our population in the United States. This number is expected to grow as our population ages, particularly in the cases of disability caused by dementia and stroke. IWCD have been historically marginalized through the suppression of their voices and a lack of power over their own lives. While the advocacy movement has helped IWCD achieve self-empowerment and abolish the inhumane research practices of the past, the inclusion of IWCD in program evaluations has been limited. Exclusion from evaluation means that IWCD have less influence over the programs and services on which they rely. This study examined the extent to which and in what ways IWCD have been included in evaluations, the common obstacles to inclusion, and why evaluators do or do not include IWCD in their evaluations. Using a mixed-method approach, the researcher conducted over 500 surveys and 12 interviews with evaluators, primarily with members of the American Evaluation Association, who have a wide range of experience working with IWCD. The results show that evaluators believe including IWCD in evaluations is an ethical necessity, but many evaluators do not know how to identify or accommodate IWCD. Many evaluators have not considered including IWCD in their evaluations as participants or on their evaluation teams. Additionally, concern over resources, ethical review, and validity limit inclusive practice. Evaluators who have conducted evaluation projects with IWCD have faced these challenges and offer solutions and reassurances. The dissertation concludes with several recommendations for increasing inclusion in the evaluation field.Item Measuring Change: Evaluating Impact for Sustainable Programs(2015-04) Wilson, NatalieThis academic paper addresses the necessity and complexity of program evaluation, utilizing the comprehensive evaluation of the Illusion Theater’s “Keepin It Real” Program as a case study. I demonstrate how the “Keepin It Real” Program is pertinent to the conversation about the necessity of evaluation tools, and the results they can produce. The increase in demand for results-driven reporting has served as a catalyst to field-wide thinking about alternative ways to measure and report impact as a method for sustaining and improving programmatic activity.Item Program Evaluation Trends in China: A Content Analysis of Social Science Studies(Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 2013-05-06) Deng, Xiaodan