G University
PSY - 843
Every organization needs to engage in evaluation planning as a way to ensure that the organization is meeting all the goals and requirements that it has established. There is no point in goal-setting if an organization has no structures in place to ensure that the goals that have been set are being met; the evaluation of the program, then, becomes fundamentally important for the overall success of the organization. In this discussion, the organization that will be discussed is an organization dedicated to halting the epidemic of drunk driving; this is a noble cause, but it requires a wide range of different individuals and organizations to work together in the establishment of a functional system. Both summative and formative assessment structures are necessary for this organization, and the general structure of these assessments will be discussed in some depth here.
Purpose
Formative assessment is an ongoing process for the evaluator. It provides the evaluator with constant input on the path of the organization; it also gives the evaluator insight into how problems are solved within the organization. For this organization, formative assessments are incredibly important because new ways to prevent drunk driving are being developed constantly; formative assessment might even go so far as to be a lifesaving device if certain strategies are found to be used more effectively than others (Harlen & James, 1997). On the other hand, summative assessments are only done at the completion of a project; while these might be excellent if the drunk driving prevention program has specific goals that must be met or targets that should be met, summative assessments are more commonly used to evaluate a product-oriented program or structure (Harlen & James, 1997).
Audience
Information Type
For this particular program, the information that is collected is very important. A formative assessment can and should be done at different pre-determined points; the information should be both qualitative and quantitative in nature. The individuals who are assessing the program should be able to determine what the successes are for the organization, and how far along the organization is in the fight to reach its goals; however, part of the evaluation should also be a qualitative assessment of the structures utilized in the program to determine what member businesses feel is working—and what they believe is not working in their goal to end drunk driving through this programming. This particular organization is a loose association of different organizations, which means there are many different business processes and structures at play; there are bound to be conflicts and perceptions that should be assessed in the determination of whether the organization is meeting its goals.
However, a summative assessment should also be done, perhaps on a quarterly basis. This assessment should take into account all of the data that was gathered during the formative assessments, of course, but it should also attempt to determine what the goals moving forward should be for the organization as a whole. Summative assessments are meant to be an analysis of the overall successes or failures of the organization, rather than the processes that the organization is using; as such, this assessment should be more quantitative in nature and should focus on the outcomes of the program (Community Tool Box, 2016).
Methodological Strategies: Research-Based Development
Evaluation and assessment are two areas that have been heavily researched. Assessment questions for this particular program should be specifically tailored to the program itself; in addition, whether the assessment is formative or summative should also be considered. For a formative assessment, qualitative questions regarding the process that the program is following should be developed. For instance, asking a participating business a question like, “How many lives have been saved as a result of the project?” is not particularly useful for a formative assessment. However, asking a question about the perceived efficacy of the program can, alternatively, provide an excellent baseline for the assessment as a whole (Community Tool Box, 2016). Conversely, setting out to discover statistics and basing evaluation on those statistics is helpful for the development of summative assessment structures within the organization. Because drinking and driving tends to be a habit that is formed early, integration with local schools and other places where young people congregate can provide excellent metrics for assessment.
Drinking and driving can be a deadly practice, and the development of appropriate prevention strategies should be a community-wide concern. There are many different ways to go about developing these strategies, but the overarching focus for this particular program is to provide a community-wide support network whose role it is to protect the community against the harms associated with drinking and driving. Because the pieces of this puzzle are quite disparate, assessment becomes fundamentally important.
References
Community Tool Box. (2016). Chapter 36. Introduction to Evaluation | Section 5. Developing an Evaluation Plan | Main Section | Community Tool Box.Ctb.ku.edu. Retrieved 14 April 2016, from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/evaluate/evaluation/evaluation-plan/main
DDPO. (2016). Ddpo.org. Retrieved 14 April 2016, from http://www.ddpo.org/index.html
Hanna, G. S., & Dettmer, P. (2004). Assessment for effective teaching: Using context-adaptive planning. Allyn & Bacon.
Harlen, W., & James, M. (1997). Assessment and learning: differences and relationships between formative and summative assessment.Assessment in Education, 4(3), 365-379.
