Date: Monday, March 30, 2026
Youth Focused Evaluation Topical Interest Group is for Evaluation About Youth, for Youth, and with Youth. The Youth Focused Evaluation TIG aims to collaboratively create learning spaces for all evaluators and researchers (adult and youth) that focus on the practices and outcomes of positive youth development and participatory approaches across informal and formal contexts. The YFE-TIG speaks to youth and adult evaluators’ and researchers’ unique needs by promoting the development and use of responsive tools and methods leading to practical and transformative outcomes for young people. The YFE-TIG helps youth and adult evaluators and researchers develop effective practices in professional development, program quality, measurement, ethics, youth participation, and amplifying youth voice and power. Ultimately, we want to support more profound youth-informed or youth-led evaluation and decision-making.
Hi! I’m Santee Ezell, a Mississippi-based evaluator working with Student & Academic Affairs Departments that rely heavily on peer educators. From the beginning of my career, first as a program developer and then as program evaluator, I have focused on topics such as the eight dimensions of wellness, sleep, sexual assault prevention, substance misuse and abuse, and mental health just to name a few.
Over time, I noticed a disconnect: peer educators were trusted to deliver programming but rarely invited to shape how that programming was evaluated. I began experimenting with what happens when peer educators move beyond providing feedback and instead serve as co-evaluators by helping define questions, select methods, and interpret findings. The shift improved relevance, trust, and use of results.
Peer educators already understand student language, norms, and informal campus dynamics. Rather than presenting them with finalized evaluation plans, I now start by asking: What should we be paying attention to? What outcomes do students care about?
This approach draws from empowerment evaluation, which emphasizes shared learning and decision-making. When peer educators help shape questions, evaluations better reflect the campus realities.
Peer educators have helped design methods that feel authentic and accessible to college students, including:
These approaches complement surveys and often surface context that numbers alone miss. They also reduce evaluation fatigue by integrating data collection into existing peer education activities.
Peer educators are not just DATA COLLECTORS, they are COLLABORATORS. At the same time, as the lead evaluator, I remain responsible for ethical practice, confidentiality, and participant safety. Clear training, role definitions, and boundaries are essential, especially when evaluations touch on sensitive topics like mental health or substance use.
The American Evaluation Association’s Guiding Principles offer a helpful anchor for maintaining integrity while sharing power.
If you work with peer educators, try one small step: invite them to co-interpret findings from a recent evaluation. Ask what resonates, what feels incomplete, and what should change. In my experience, when peer educators become co-evaluators, evaluation shifts from a reporting task to a shared learning process and campus change follows more naturally.
The American Evaluation Association is hosting YFE TIG Week with our colleagues in the Youth Focused Evaluation Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from our YFE TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the AEA365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to AEA365@eval.org. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.