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· Unit 9
· Formulating Outcome-Based Evaluation of Needs Assessment Report for Stakeholders
Introduction
At the outset of this course, you were introduced to the action learning knowledge base on the public needs assessment and planning processes representing the contextual gap between the present conditions or situation occurring within the community of interest and what ought to have been occurring to ensure the best possible services, programs, or projects for those whose needs-based issues are at stake. Also, you learned that the needs assessment planning process is that measurable instrument used in determining the measurable action that can foster desirable systems changes to bridge or fill that gap. However, without a results-based accountability instrument and performance reporting framework, there can be no way of determining whether that contextual gap has been bridged and its measurable outcomes been attained.
Moreover, as an undergirding centerpiece, you have also learned that in conceptualizing the measurable action, the needs assessment and planning processes provide a comprehensive framework for determining action intervention and service or program use patterns in facilitation of an action-oriented research project. However, crucial to the facilitation of the public needs assessment and planning process that can impact the action-oriented research project is the delineation of the positionality of research facilitator. Also, because the central focus of this course is on the public aspect of needs assessment planning projects, it is important to understand its ethnographic implications.
Moreover, your future participatory action research dissertation study includes you as a member of a team that works to find a solution to a public problem or gaps in service, program, or project use patterns within the public domain. Participatory action research builds on ethnography as one component of the research model. And that is another reason to understand ethnography as a qualitative research methodology. Ethnography has its roots in a number of disciplines, and each adds depth and richness to the research design.
Thus, throughout this course, you have been exploring the various components of public needs assessment and planning processes and have learned a great deal about how gaps in service, program, or project use patterns can be bridged to effect positive systems changes. In bridging those gaps, the components of public needs assessment and planning processes may require any of the following plans: proximate or short-term, ultimate or long-term, and proximate-ultimate or multileveled strategic planning. The outcome-based evaluation (OBE) is the accountability instrument that can provide the framework for determining the impacts of such plans on program or project use patterns.
Even in the previous unit, you also explored how KTA intervention framework or other suitable frameworks can be used in facilitation of your needs-based action learning of program or project planning, implementation, monitoring, and performance evaluation processes. The OBE serves as the program or project inquiry blueprint in ascertaining to what extent the program’s implementation has facilitated a successful outcome. In other words, without the OBE, how do you really know the extent to which the public needs assessment and planning processes or perhaps the KTA interventions have been effective or efficient in bridging the gaps in service, program, or project use patterns for the positive systems changes? And without the OBE, how sure are you that all of the relevant needs-based data have even been well collected to give accurate data representation of the SAF?
Also, to what degree of certainty have you really determined this SAF as constituting the needs-based issues? How valid and reliable have the various analytic tools been efficient and effective in helping gather the relevant data in delineating the SAF? Under which condition of certainty is the etiological analysis of the needs assessment planning processes conducted presents a clear delineation of the assumptions that undergird the needs-based SAF? And, how certain is such etiological analysis of the needs assessment planning processes embedded in theory-driven outcomes or theoretical foundations of program use patterns? How have such theory-driven outcomes informed the conceptualization of measurable action plan in shaping the overall goal, outcome objectives, process objectives, program or project hypotheses, and activities? All of the above action learning questions thus echo the uncertainty that may surround the public needs assessment and planning processes. That is to say that, no public needs assessment and planning processes may run a completely smooth course. In fact, there may be ups and downs, uncertainties, challenges, efficiency or effectiveness issues with service, program or project use patterns, and perhaps successes, or it could be that things just did not go as well planned. The important points are that progress, results-based accountability, and performance reporting, however slow, should continue to be made as the undergirding principles. Sometimes, the progress, results-based accountability, and performance reporting are just not as obvious, which is why methods of evaluating different stages and activities in ways pertinent to the service, program or project use patterns are important. For example, in some situations, it is subjective and not so much measured as could have been observed.
In other cases, we can quantify our planned action goals or create milestones to measure progress. For example, if our planned action goal is to introduce fresh healthy foods to all 78 markets in an area of a city, an interim or short-term goal might be 25 stores in the first year. We can measure our progress against that. An action plan might lay out steps to reduce community crime through better public awareness. A survey taken at certain points in the project timeline could tell us how well our awareness program is being understood by the public. Again, we can take a snapshot in time of our progress. In this unit, we will consider some of the ups and downs, uncertainties, challenges, efficiency or effectiveness issues with service, program or project use patterns, and the ethnographic implications, as well as the OBE methods we can use to assess our public needs assessment and planning project’s progress.
Finally, remember that all of the action learning issues covered in this course are intended to introduce you to the process of exploring the needs-based patterns of service, program, or project use gap that may serve as the backbone for your future action research dissertation project in the DPA program. For this, the public needs assessment and planning course is a starting point of exploring possible needs-based patterns of service, program, or project use gap in preparation for your ultimate action research dissertation project.
Currently, because the scientific merit action research template (SMART) form is the research plan that serves as the skeleton for your dissertation proposal in the DPA program, it may be good to get introduced to it. Being introduced early to the SMART form will not only help you better acclimate yourself on what will be expected of you at the dissertation phase, but also you could perhaps start reflecting on the relevant questions noted on some of the sections as lenses to help shape your public needs assessment and planning project.
Objectives
To successfully complete this learning unit, you will be expected to:
1. Explore results-based accountability instrument and performance reporting framework used in determining the measurable outcome of systems changes.
2. Assess methods of performance evaluation and outcomes measurement for public needs assessments.
3. Compare methods used to evaluate uncertainties, challenges, and efficiency or effectiveness issues with service, program, or project use patterns, success, and progress in a public needs assessment project.
4. Explore outcome-based evaluation applications and implications on public needs assessment and planning processes, theory-driven outcomes, and action-oriented research projects.
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Readings
Note: Be certain to read the unit introduction, as it may contain important information and references pertaining to this unit’s content and activities.
Use your Designing and Managing Programs text to complete the following:
. Read Chapter 9, “Designing Effectiveness-Based Information Systems,” pages 161–188.
. Read Chapter 11, “Impact Program Evaluation and Hypothesis Testing,” pages 203–212.
Use your Conducting Needs Assessments text to read Chapter 10, “Reporting the Findings,” pages 171–179.
Use the Capella library to read Coryn, Noakes, Westine, and Schröter’s 2011 article, “A Systematic Review of Theory-Driven Evaluation Practice From 1990 to 2009,” from American Journal of Evaluation, volume 32, issue 2, pages 199–226.
