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Session Title: Extension Education Evaluators Adapt “A Checklist for Building Organizational Evaluation Capacity” to Extension Contexts
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Panel Session 606 to be held in Centennial Section G on Friday, Nov 7, 1:35 PM to 3:05 PM
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Sponsored by the Extension Education Evaluation TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Heather Boyd,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University,
hboyd@vt.edu
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| Discussant(s):
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| Michael Lambur,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University,
lamburmt@vt.edu
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| Abstract:
Extension education organizations in the past few years have made a commitment to support evaluation capacity building (ECB) for organizational, workforce and program improvement. These organizations have provided budgets and administrative support to the ECB enterprise as well as hired full- and part-time evaluators and evaluation capacity builders. The Extension system is a dynamic laboratory for evaluation capacity building for several reasons, including the pressures on it to show public value for the tax monies that support it. Panelists for this presentation take elements of 'A Checklist for Building Organizational Capacity' by King and Volkov (2007) and apply and/or adapt the items in the checklist to their extension-based organizational realities.
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Internal Organizational Context and Purposeful Socialization
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| Mary Arnold,
Oregon State University,
mary.arnold@oregonstate.edu
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| Nancy Ellen Kiernan,
Pennsylvania State University,
nekiernan@psu.edu
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The success of ECB efforts is greatly affected by the culture of the organization. Two important strategies for ECB success are creating a positive, evaluation-friendly organizational context, and developing and maintaining a purposeful socialization into the organization's evaluation process. Panel presenters will share experiences and strategies for creating a positive ECB organizational environment, including ways to increase positive attitudes toward evaluation while minimizing the negative influences. The presenters will also explore how ongoing and persistent socialization into the evaluation process can help Extension administrators and educators support the organization's evaluation efforts. Such socialization requires an exposure to the scientific criteria for evaluation and an exposure to the value placed on the need to conduct evaluation both must become organizational values. Other important aspects of evaluation socialization include helping Extension educators to realize the benefits of evaluation for themselves (promotion and program improvement) and for program stakeholders.
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External Environment and Peer Learning Structures
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| Ellen Taylor-Powell,
University of Wisconsin Extension,
ellen.taylor-powell@ces.uwex.edu
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Demand for evaluation often starts with external accountability mandate. This actually can provide an important launching pad for nurturing internal demand that sustains evaluation as an organizational function.
Our external influences exist at multiple levels, across all sectors: 1993 GPRA mandate; county government level performance-based budgeting and management; non-profit sector demand of outcome reporting (influence of United Way and Kellogg Foundation and other grant giving agencies); federal funding requirements that require evaluation; tenure and promotion requirements; and professional expectations to use evidence-based practice.
ECB practitioners need to turn these requirements and expectations into opportunities and positive energy, not let accountability/reporting negativity prevail: e.g., use external influences to build knowledge, understanding and skills; create policies and structures that will sustain evaluation; engage administration and leadership and build the champion pool.
For peer learning structures, we will review items in the ECB checklist and suggest additions and examples relevant to Extension context.
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Expand Access to Evaluation Resources and Secure Support
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| Mary Marczak,
University of Minnesota,
marcz001@umn.edu
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Conducting quality evaluations can be fairly resource-intensive. It takes time, money, human resources, necessary expertise, a general sense of goodwill from participants, etc. Sometimes, the resources it takes to conduct sound evaluations can be perceived as “taking resources away from direct programming with participants.” Thus, any discussion of resource In terms of ECB and Extension must be twofold. First, we have to be transparent about the resources needed to conduct quality evaluations as well as how to adequately infuse resources to carry them out. Just as important however, is an explicit discussion about how sound evaluations and developed evaluation resources and expertise can enhance Extension’s ability to acquire additional resources. This presentation will discuss these issues using an example of one state’s Extension that has succeeded in infusing resources into the system for evaluation, thus increasing their chances of acquiring additional resources both for evaluation and programming.
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Reinforce Infrastructure to Support the Evaluation Process and Communication Systems
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| Nancy Ellen Kiernan,
Pennsylvania State University,
nekiernan@psu.edu
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The specific components of the evaluation process and communication systems are disparate and thus a challenge to sustain support for all of them. Also disparate are the audiences to receive this support within extension: local and statewide administrators, faculty and field educators. Infrastructure created to achieve these objectives with these audiences must create an ongoing persistent process of 1) reinforcing expectations among extension administrators, faculty and educators that evaluation will be done and done at a certain scientific level while at same time 2) producing evaluation models for knowing how to integrate each of the components in an evaluation. Several types of infrastructure used in one state will be presented. An evaluation of one type of infrastructure will demonstrate the degree to which the disparate components of evaluation can be communicated in extension and how the three audiences believe they were impacted.
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