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Undervaluing Evaluation and Evaluators: The Case of the Federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program in Texas 

10-31-2017 15:55

In this presentation, we discuss the undervaluing of evaluation and evaluators in the Federally-funded 21st Century After-School Program. The evidence and observations presented in this paper are based upon our experiences over five years in evaluating three large after-school programs and three relatively smaller ones in Texas. We build upon our previous presentation on problems imposed upon evaluators by granting authorities. In this discussion, we describe the exclusion of independent evaluators from critical decisions about evaluation design, measurement, data collection, dissemination of assessment results, logic model construction, and the involvement of program stakeholders. We also detail how such exclusion has led to adverse consequences for site-level decision-making and, especially, for the program’s school-age clients. Such consequences, we further demonstrate, have led to the additional undervaluation of evaluation and evaluators. Finally, we offer corrective recommendations to state and Federal policy and program officials as well as to site-level decision-makers.

Prepared for presentation at Evaluation 2017, Washington, D.C., November 10, 2017.

Authors: Dr. Venita Holmes, Evaluator (Principal presenter); Dr. Roger Durand , Durand Research and Marketing Associates, LLC (Co-presenter); Melvin Waits, Waits Consulting Group.

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Presented at Evaluation2017