Parenting Evaluation Decision Framework:
Types of Evaluation

There are many different kinds of evaluation. The major kinds of evaluation are quantitative and qualitative as well as process and outcome. Quantitative includes any kind of assessment that involves measurement. For example, we may ask program participants to rate their behavior on a five-point scale. Such measurement is quantitative. On the other hand, qualitative involves word descriptions. Program participants may tell you in an interview after the program that they enjoyed the program but wished that they had more opportunities to ask questions. This is valuable qualitative information.

Process evaluation assesses how well the program or process is working. For example, we may be interested in assessing how many people come to our programs, how much the participants enjoy the sessions or how well the educator handles questions. Those are all process issues in contrast to outcome issues. Some examples of outcome issues include participants' reports of changed behavior and economic benefits to the community.

In addition, evaluation can be done immediately at the end of the program and can include later follow-up. This table lists some examples of major kinds of evaluation:

		Information
		Quantitative	Qualitative
Information	Process	satisfaction scales, monitoring, tracking, counting (e.g. coalitions formed, # of workshops, % that liked it, number of sessions held as a result of your workshop, # newsletters sent)	observation, anecdotal, post focus assessment
	Outcome	behavioral measures, pre/post test (written or phone), follow-up measures of change, economic benefits, tax dollar support levels, volunteer dollar value and time support	transformative interview data, success stories, post focus groups

To assist you in your decision of quantitative and quantitative, use some of these questions as a guide.

- Is your expected outcome a value (number, time,)?

- Do your objectives specify behaviors that must change?

- Are the delivery methods related to the objectives?

- Is there a timeframe outlined in the objective Some quantitative methods include counting participation, measuring knowledge, attitude, behavior, satisfaction levels pre/post/follow-up about process, post then pre about process, community changes, economic benefits.

There are creative and effective ways to plan for quantitative outcome evaluation. For example, participants may be asked on a post-test to evaluate their current performance and the amount of change in their behavior since the program began. The change question is one way of directly assessing change.

Qualitative/Processes:

Qualitative processes may include professional observation and feedback, judgements and comments by participants, or stories that describe events and historical events leading up to changes. Qualitative process evaluation also is interested in evaluating the process but uses different kinds of information. For example, program organizers might invite other community professionals to visit one or more sessions and evaluate how the process is working. They might address questions like: Are all participants given a chance to participate? Do participants seem to be comfortable and interested? Does the teacher use appropriate examples that teach the concepts well and are sensitive to the life circumstances of the participants? It is very common to overlook this valuable area of evaluation but qualitative process evaluation, can give us very useful information to improve programs that is not obtained from pre and post outcome measures.

Qualitative/Outcomes may be collected and reported in the form of success stories, focus group discussion, or in-person or telephone interviews. Transformative interview data asks participants how they were changed by the intervention. The evaluator interviews participants focusing on how much participants changed or transformed behaviors since the teaching occurred. The evaluator reports this in qualitative (open-ended statements) based on posed questions such as: Has attending the class made parenting easier? What is your best experience from the class? Do you talk to your friends or relatives about changes you have made since attending the class?

Deciding what to measure in your evaluation effort is very important. It would not make sense to try to measure all of the above after a 20-minute PTA presentation. Nor would it make sense to merely ask one question about satisfaction after a program that included six 2-hour sessions. The kind and amount of evaluation you do needs to be commensurate with your program and related to your information needs. Most of us probably do not gather as much information in our evaluations as would be useful.

Consider some evaluation you might conduct in each of the four areas (Qualitative, quantitative, outcome, and process) of Table 1 if you offered a multi-session parenting program that you had previously offered and wanted to improve.

1. For quantitative process evaluation you might assess not only the number of people who attend but how their racial composition represents the composition of your community. You might also assess participants' satisfaction. Quantitative process evaluation is one way to measure how well the process is working.

2. Qualitative outcome evaluation can also provide you valuable information. Some people invite program participants to have an interview with someone other than the program instructor sometime after the last session. The interviewer might ask questions such as: When have you thought of the things you learned in the class? How have you used the ideas? Have you discussed them with other people?

It might also be useful for you to gather follow-up information a few weeks, months, or years after the conclusion of your program. You can see how all these different kinds of evaluation information can help you improve your program and persuade stakeholders of the merit of your program. It is not necessary to gather evaluation information in each of the four areas shown in the chart. But it does make sense to consider what information in each area might be useful for your evaluation objectives.

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