Program Evaluation
Smart Start of Davidson County bears the responsibility and provides funding for varied concurrent and meaningful activities for children 0-5 and their families. These responsibilities and activities stimulate the need for technical assistance in working with multiple program partners and agencies as well as expertise in evaluation and organizational development. Compass Consulting Group specializes in supporting this process and in working with clients to integrate a holistic view of organizational development into everyday resource allocation and programming. Compass also provides direct evaluation services that guide programs, Board members, and staff in reducing waste, and increasing the efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of services for county stakeholders.
Specific needs that have been addressed include (but are not limited to) trainings or workshops related to the following areas:
- survey design
- data entry and in analyzing qualitative data
- analyzing quantitative data
- creating web-based survey and in understanding logic models
- training specific to each program in finding instruments with good validity and reliability data and reporting.
Evaluation Framework and Philosophy
Understanding the contribution of evaluation begins with a clear conceptualization of the relation of evaluation methods and findings to other aspects of strategic planning, policy-making, and program implementation. With this in mind, evaluation is one link in a causal and iterative chain, illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Evaluation for Strategic Planning and Policy Making
As shown in Figure 1, evaluation clearly plays a role in informing strategic planning, policy-making, policy implementation, and action planning. More specifically, strategic planning is the process by which mid- and long-term vision, mission, goal, objectives, and benchmarks are established. The strategic plan is used to inform policy-making, the process by whichresources are allocated such that the strategic plan can be achieved. Resources include but are not limited to funding, personnel, time.anything of value that can be transferred and used.
Policy making is by definition a difficult process as it involves the allocation of limited resources to almost unlimited demands and needs. Various analytic tools such as multi-attribute decision-making and cost benefit analysis, therefore, are employed to help elucidate the most efficient and equitable paths to achieving the strategic plan. Once policies are made and resources are allocated, the policies enter implementation which is the spending of resources to achieve the strategic plan.
About Compass
Compass Consulting Group, LLC is a woman-owned and operated Limited Liability Company whose primary functions are to conduct evaluations and provide training and technical assistance in evaluation to educational, community, and service organizations. Compass partners began their careers as early as 1996 as evaluation specialists for Teaching to Diversity at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNC-G). Three years later, the team helped establish Evaluation, Assessment, and Policy Connections (EvAP), an evaluation unit located in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). In 2001, partners formed Compass Consulting Group, a private evaluation consulting firm dedicated to working collaboratively with organizations to meet the challenges of developing and sustaining successful programs.
Compass partners have experience managing and conducting evaluation and research studies of early childhood programs and initiatives that encompass family literacy, health, and child care; school reform initiatives; professional development programs; educational programs; and educational issues. These evaluations have occurred on the local, state, and national levels and have involved diverse populations and organizations including non-profits, school systems, universities, and state boards of education.