Your final project for this course is the creation of a mock program evaluation plan using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health. The mock evaluation plan will correspond to the CDC framework steps described in the “Introduction to Program Evaluation for Public Health Programs: A Self-Study Guide,” including identifying stakeholders, describing the program that will be evaluated, selecting the evaluation design, suggesting credible evidence, and summarizing how these potential findings will be communicated.
Program evaluation in the public health field is a systematic investigation into the quality, value, or importance of a public health program. Evaluation methods provide the framework for public health practitioners to determine if a program is operating as expected or needs improvement, and to determine if the program has an impact on the short- and long-term health outcomes targeted. As a public health practitioner, you may be called upon to design a program evaluation and/or to review existing program evaluations to understand the strengths and weaknesses of a selected program.
For the final assessment in this course, you will have a chance to participate in the program evaluation process by creating a mock program evaluation plan. Your mock program evaluation plan will correspond to most of the CDC framework steps, including identifying stakeholders, describing the program that will be evaluated, selecting the evaluation design, suggesting
credible evidence, and summarizing how these potential findings will be
communicated. You may select one of the following public health programs below:
My program choice is: REACH: Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (located under Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity)
Visit the CDC websites for the programs listed above (using links in the Module One Resources) to learn more about each program. Ideally, the program you select to evaluate from the list above should be on a health topic in which you have an interest and see yourself using in the future, or one that has been used in a population on which you plan to focus.
Please Note: Although there are published evaluations of communities funded by the programs above (i.e., you will find one for REACH in one of your readings), these are to be used ONLY as a reference or guidance on how to complete your own “mock evaluation” rather than be submitted as original work, as this would reflect plagiarism.
Once you have identified a program, you will need to narrow down what you are evaluating by identifying a specific community (population or city) where your chosen program is being implemented. Review the Community Examples list (located in Module One), which provides some options of actual cities/populations that you could use for your evaluation.
This assessment addresses the following course outcomes:
- Develop evidence-based goals for evaluating public health programs that are designed to reach public health audiences
- Analyze specific communities through different social and behavioral lenses for informing program evaluations of public health programs
- Determine evaluation design components appropriate for evaluating the effectiveness of public health programs
- Develop valid and reliable measurement strategies to be used in evaluating public health programs in specific communities
Visit the CDC websites for the programs listed above (using links in the Module One Resources) to learn more about each program. Ideally, the program you select to evaluate from the list above should be on a health topic in which you have an interest and see yourself using in the future, or one that has been used in a population on which you plan to focus.
Please Note: Although there are published evaluations of communities funded by the programs above (i.e., you will find one for REACH in one of your readings), these are to be used ONLY as a reference or guidance on how to complete your own “mock evaluation” rather than be submitted as original work, as this would reflect plagiarism.
Once you have identified a program, you will need to narrow down what you are evaluating by identifying a specific community (population or city) where your chosen program is being implemented. Review the Community Examples list (located in Module One), which provides some options of actual cities/populations that you could use for your evaluation.
This assessment addresses the following course outcomes:
- Develop evidence-based goals for evaluating public health programs that are designed to reach public health audiences
- Analyze specific communities through different social and behavioral lenses for informing program evaluations of public health programs
- Determine evaluation design components appropriate for evaluating the effectiveness of public health programs
- Develop valid and reliable measurement strategies to be used in evaluating public health programs in specific communities
The project is divided into two milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Two and Four. The final mock program evaluation plan will be submitted in Module Seven.
Prompt
Conduct research on the program you selected and create a plan for evaluating the success of the program. You should use at least four relevant sources to support your evaluation plan.
Your evaluation plan must address the critical elements listed below. Most of the critical elements align with a particular course outcome (shown in brackets).
- Program Evaluation Background: In this section, you will distill the background research you conducted on the public health issue that was targeted by the program you selected.
- Provide an overview of the issue targeted by the selected program, including the affected community, using current published literature. Be sure to support your response with any relevant programs, evaluations, campaigns, and/or studies that have addressed your selected issue.
- Discuss what you are hoping to accomplish or determine by conducting an evaluation of the selected program and what audience(s) this evaluation would be most relevant for.
- Develop goals for conducting your evaluation. Justify the appropriateness and relevance of your goals using current published literature.
- Analyze social theories, behavior models, health disparities, and social determinants of health for how they impact program evaluations for affected communities.
- Explain the social theories or health behavior models that apply to the selected program and affected community. Be sure to support your explanation with specific examples from credible sources.
- Describe how health disparities in the selected community will impact the conduct of this program evaluation.
- Describe how social determinants of health within your selected community will impact the conduct of the program evaluation.
- Program Evaluation Design: In this section, you will define and defend how you have focused your evaluation process, including what questions you intend to answer in your investigation.
- Explain the type of evaluation you will use when evaluating the selected program and justify why this type of evaluation will help you meet the goals you have identified.
- Discuss the types of evaluation questions that can be addressed using your selected evaluation design.
- Defend how the evaluation type you have selected will ensure use of the findings and provide lessons learned that will continue to improve programs targeting this issue.
- Program Evaluation Methods: In this section, you will explain how you plan to collect the data you need to complete your evaluation of your chosen public health program.
- Develop a measurement strategy for your program evaluation that defines the general methods and specific tools you will use to collect data. Consider: Will you use focus groups and/or surveys? What kinds of measurement tools are most appropriate for this evaluation?
- Justify your measurement strategy in terms of validity. Be sure to address both the internal and external validity.
- Justify your measurement strategy using the concepts of reliability. Be sure to address both the internal consistency and stability of your measurement strategy.
- Conclusion: Develop goals for communicating your findings to a variety of potential audiences. Consider: If you are communicating with a scientific audience, what information from your findings would you include? If you were meeting with community stakeholders, what would you prepare, and how would you communicate the information? Justify the appropriateness of your goals using current published literature.
Final Project Submission: Mock Program Evaluation Plan
In Module Seven, you will submit your final mock program evaluation plan. It should correspond to the CDC framework steps, including identifying community stakeholders, describing the public health issue in the community and the program that will be evaluated, selecting the evaluation design, suggesting credible evidence that can be gathered, and summarizing how these potential findings will be communicated.
Note: The final program evaluation plan should include:
- A revised introduction.
- A section on Program Evaluation Methods (Critical Element III) in which you will explain how you plan to collect the data needed to complete the evaluation of your chosen public health program (you prepared for this in the Module Five Short Essay task).
- A conclusion (Critical Element IV) in which you develop goals for communicating your findings to a variety of potential audiences.
Be sure to incorporate all instructor feedback from your milestone assignments before you submit the final project. This submission will be graded with the Final Project Rubric (below).
What to Submit
Your program evaluation plan should be 8–10 pages (not including a cover sheet or reference page), use at least 4 current and relevant sources, 12-point Times New Roman font, and double spacing, and it must adhere to APA guidelines for formatting and for citing sources.