This workshop is designed to address specific evaluation problems faced by the workshop participants. Participants will have provided a brief program description and specific major difficulties they are facing in conducting their program evaluation. Based on the information provided in advance by the participants, several topics will be covered in varying degrees of depth in response to the needs and difficulties faced by the participants. In this way, participants can learn from the experiences of each other and begin to appreciate that program evaluations can be done in a scientific manner despite apparent constraints.

One commonly faced issue is the need to differentiate between process evaluation in which the delivery of the program is evaluated, and outcome evaluation in which the effect on participants is measured. The use of each type of evaluation will be compared, and implications for choosing an evaluation design will be discussed. Another topic that will be tailored to the needs of participants is elements of a scientific evaluation design, including sample selection, sample size, criteria for selecting an appropriate comparison group or groups, and timing data collection. The management of data collection and conducting data analysis will be addressed to the extent that these are problems being faced by the workshop participants.

Woven into the discussions is an emphasis on population-based designs, with attention to the implications of focusing on populations rather than on individuals. Because program evaluations often lead to programmatic decisions, the biases caused by weak evaluation designs will be addressed and alternative designs offered.