Developmental Evaluation for Extension Programs

Logic models have garnered acclaim for their usefulness and disdain for the time required to create good ones. We argue that the orderly, analytical nature of logic models is opposed to many Extension programs, and we explain developmental evaluation, an approach that highlights ongoing development, adaptations, and rapid response. We use our recently completed evaluation of the 4-H Science: Building a 4-H Career Pathway Initiative to demonstrate developmental evaluation’s key principles. Recommendations for Extension include the need to embrace developmental evaluation for program planning and evaluation and for Extension evaluators to conduct case studies using developmental evaluation and other approaches.

Measuring endemicity and burden of leprosy across countries and regions: A systematic review and Delphi survey

Background Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, the annual new case detection in 2019 was 202,189 globally. Measuring endemicity levels and burden in leprosy lacks a uniform approach. As a result, the assessment of leprosy endemicity or burden are not comparable over time and across countries and regions. This can make program planning and evaluation difficult. This study aims to identify relevant metrics and methods for measuring and classifying leprosy endemicity and burden at (sub)national level. Methods We used a mixed-method approach combining findings from a systematic literature review and a Delphi survey. The literature search was conducted in seven databases, searching for endemicity, burden and leprosy. We reviewed the available evidence on the usage of indicators, classification levels, and scoring methods to measure and classify endemicity and burden. A two round Delphi survey was conducted to ask experts to rank and weigh indicators, classification levels, and scoring methods. Results The literature review showed variation of indicators, levels, and cut-off values to measure leprosy endemicity and/or burden. The most used indicators for endemicity include new case detection rate (NCDR), new cases among children and new cases with grade 2 disability. For burden these include NCDR, MB cases, and prevalence. The classification levels ‘high’ and ‘low’ were most important. It was considered most relevant to use separate scoring methods for endemicity and burden. The scores would be derived by use of multiple indicators. Conclusion There is great variation in the existing method for measuring endemicity and burden across countries and regions. Our findings contribute to establishing a standardized uniform approach to measure and classify leprosy endemicity and burden at (sub)national level, which would allow effective communication and planning of intervention strategies.

Reinforcing Roles of Lady Health Workers in Sedayu Community Feeding Center: Six-Steps Program Planning and Evaluation

Child malnutrition remains a challenge in Indonesia public health nutrition field. The assistance of lady health workers child feeding centers becomes important to guard nutritional issues among children in the community. To reinforce roles of lady health workers in the community feeding center, we recruited lady health workers in two community feeding centers of Argodadi and Argorejo villages, Sedayu Subdistrict, Bantul District, in a capacity-building intervention. We were expecting that lady health workers with adequate knowledge and skills can contribute more effectively in the community-based nutrition program including nutritional status assessment and monitoring, nutrition counselling and promotion, general food supplementation, and referral system.

Assessment for Special Education: Diagnosis and Placement

Over the last 40 years, federal legislation has led to improved access to public education for students with disabilities. Today, more than six million students receive special education and related services through American public schools; however, evaluation practices for eligibility determination largely have remained unchanged. Assessment approaches used for identification, program planning, and evaluation of progress, arguably, have been insensitive to cultural differences, contributing to disproportional representation of children from different backgrounds in specific special education disability categories, and inefficient because they are too broad to immediately inform instructional planning for both students within and across disability categories. This article critiques current practices for identifying children for special education services and offers considerations, grounded in developmental and cognitive neuroscience, that could lead to more useful assessment approaches that optimize all students’ learning.

What’s the Problem Represented to Be? Problem Definition Critique as a Tool for Evaluative Thinking

Problem definition in program planning and evaluation is rarely problematized. In this article, I discuss why the lack of problem problematization is itself problematic—in other words, why treating problems as self-evident can pose a risk for evaluation practice. Then, to help avoid such risks, I suggest Carol Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” approach as a useful tool to focus evaluative thinking on the frequently tacit step of problem definition. Bacchi’s approach, informed by feminist and poststructuralist epistemologies, is designed to facilitate critical interrogation of policies and programs, focusing on the social and value-laden ways in which problems are initially defined. I propose that evaluators can fruitfully use Bacchi’s tool to promote evaluative thinking about the assumptions that inhere problem representation and thus can help promote better evaluation.