Designing Evaluations: Methodology Transfer Paper 4

This document addresses the logic of program evaluation designs. It provides a systematic approach to designing evaluations that takes into account the questions guiding a study, the constraints evaluators face in conducting it, and the information needs of its intended user. Taking the time to design evaluations carefully is a critical step toward insuring overall job quality. Indeed, the most important outcome of a careful, sound design should be an evaluation whose quality is high in quite specific ways.

Evaluation designs are characterized by the manner in which the evaluators have

•  defined and posed the evaluation questions for study,

• developed a methodological approach for answering those questions,

• formulated a data collection plan that anticipates problems, and

• detailed an analysis plan for answering the study questions with appropriate data.

Designing Evaluations is a guide to the successful completion of these design tasks.