Program Improvement in Order to Effectively Assess

¶ … Program Improvement

In order to effectively assess the overall efficacy of a program, managers constantly engage in an informal form of evaluation which is based on factors such as the satisfaction of its participants and the efficiency of its delivery. While these instinctual processes of gauging a program's utility are beneficial to a certain extent, a more systemized methodology is necessary to fully evaluate the complex relationship between the processes used and the outcomes produced by a particular program. The field of program evaluation, developed by researchers to conclusively determine implementation objectives and participant outcome objectives for program managers, is defined as "a systematic method for collecting, analyzing, and using information to answer basic questions about a program & #8230; and to ensure that those answers are supported by evidence" (Administration for Children and Families, 2010). A thoroughly designed program evaluation utilizes "a structured and consistent method of collecting and analyzing information & #8230; to identify problems and make necessary changes while the program is still operational" (Administration for Children and Families, 2010). Program evaluations are highly structured and rely heavily on an objective analysis of numerical data and other evidence-based approaches to form informed conclusions. For program managers, the benefits of commissioning a rigorous evaluation include the unimpeachable nature of the analysis produced, but these clinical procedural processes often fail to take abstract circumstances and personal issues into account.

In order to apply the theoretical implications of program evaluation to operation of a particular program, a specialized technique known as action research has been devised in recent years by behavioral scientists studying the agents of social change. The originator of the term, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Kurt Lewin, defined action research as "an interactive inquiry process that balances problem solving actions implemented in a collaborative context with data-driven collaborative analysis or research to understand underlying causes enabling future predictions about personal and organizational change" (Reason and Bradbury, 2007). Action research seeks to determine "the effectiveness the techniques used for the betterment of intergroup relations" by providing targeted "research which will help the practitioner" (Lewin, 1946). By narrowing the scope of examination to the actual work conducted by a program, action research is a more pragmatic method of assessing a program's overall worth than the detached, analytical approach inherent to program evaluation.