Resources in this section describe how to design and develop a range of effective program evaluations and identify data collection instruments and strategies.
A Roadmap for Collaborative and Effective Evaluation in Tribal Communities (PDF - 1,146 KB)
Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2013)
Analyzes the most effective ways for building evaluative practices in child welfare within the Tribal community with regard to historical context and social distrust.
Challenges in Using Comparison Data in Child Welfare Evaluations
Roller White & O’Brien & W. Davis & Rogg & Rudlang-Perman & Jewell Morgan & Houston (2016)
Research on Social Work Practice, 26(5)
Describes the evaluation of permanency roundtables, an intervention to help youth in foster care achieve legal permanency and the challenges evaluators faced in finding and using appropriate comparison data.
Chapter 37. Operations in Evaluating Community Interventions
In Evaluating Community Programs and Initiatives
Community Tool Box (2016)
Guides users through the process of creating and implementing an evaluation of a community-based intervention, from selecting questions to collecting data.
Developing an Evidence Base for Your Program (PDF - 980 KB)
The California Evidence-based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare
Provides key concepts to assist organizations with planning and creating an evidence-based program evaluation.
Evaluation Brief: Evaluating Systems and Organizational Change in Welfare Settings (PDF - 644 KB)
James Bell Associates, Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families (2016)
Highlights effective methods for evaluating organizational functions in the child welfare setting.
The Evaluation Center
Western Michigan University
Provides a checklist targeted to specific evaluation tasks and approaches on designing, budgeting, contracting, staffing, managing, and assessing evaluations of programs.