ISU Extension provides information and guidance regarding outcomes evaluation. Contact Nancy Grudens-Schuck at 515-294-0894 for more information.

This section contains selected resources for further inquiry into evaluation.

Focus Groups

Grudens-Schuck, N., Lundy-Allen, B., & Larson, K. (2004, May). Focus group fundamentals. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Extension.
Available at: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM1969B.pdf,*.pdf

Larson, K., Grudens-Schuck, N., & Lundy-Allen, B. (2004, May). Ames, IA: Iowa State University Extension.
Available at: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM1969A.pdf,*.pdf

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Environmental Education Online Courses

University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
Applied Environmental Education Program Evaluation, University 10-week course for undergraduate, graduate, or workshop level credit.

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Evaluation Websites

University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension, Program Development and Evaluation website
Complex website with knowledge of terminology for program development and evaluation needed for easier navigation.

Penn State University Program Evaluation website
Website contains tip sheets and short examples of evaluations in Pennsylvania. Many program evaluations listed are inexpensive, small scale, and compare favorably to environmental education projects.

Western Michigan University - The Evaluation Center website
Contains many useful evaluation checklists and glossary of evaluation terminology, plus Standards of Program Evaluation, Standards for Personnel Evaluation, and Standards for Student Evaluation.

Online Evaluation Resource Library
This website has teacher professional development evaluation resources that may be helpful models for developing questions for surveys. Easy to use and contains other useful pages.

Evaluating an Event: when and how
- http://www.extension.psu.edu/evaluation/pdf/TS76.pdf,*.pdf

EPA Region 10/Pacific Northwest
Contains information about EPA's new requirements to measure environmental results, a sample logic model and more information about outputs and outcomes. The website also provides links to evaluation websites.

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Tip Sheets

"Increasing Your Survey Response Rate"
http://www.extension.psu.edu/evaluation/pdf/TS74.pdf,*.pdf

"How Do I Evaluate Impact When the Make Up of the Audience is Not Consistent?"
http://www.extension.psu.edu/evaluation/pdf/TS68.pdf,*.pdf

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Three scholarly articles

Brown, R. E. (2002). An integral approach to evaluating outcome evaluation training. American Journal of Evaluation, 23(1), 1-17.

• This article contains a diagram which project staff and Board Members felt was a helpful visual representation of the process of learning about outcome evaluation. It may be reassuring for project staff to see that the process of learning evaluation is not a simple linear formula leading to easy implementation. Feelings of frustration depicted in the graph ("You stop explaining it and now I don't get it") are not uncommon but they don't have to signal inevitable failure.

Posnanski, T. J. (2002). Professional development programs for elementary science teachers: An analysis of teacher self-efficacy beliefs and a professional development model. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 13(2), 189-220.

Rockwell, S. K,; Jha, L.; Krumbach, E. (2003). Success outcome markers in Extension (SOME): Evaluating the effects of transformational learning programs. Journal of Extension, 41(5), Available at: http://www.joe.org/joe/2003october/a4.shtml

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