Evaluation investigates whether a program is successful or high quality. But how do you define success for a particular program? Do you focus on desired outcomes? Issues of equity? Cost-effectiveness? And whose definitions of success do you prioritize?
This interactive presentation will introduce a research-based framework that reveals the definitions of success evaluators use in practice and how evaluators combine them to examine multidimensional definitions of success. We will then discuss ways you can use the framework to make definitions of success more explicit, guide evaluation design, and build evaluation capacity among stakeholders. We will also consider how the framework can help you center community and participant voices and values when defining success for a program.
About our speaker:
Rebecca M. Teasdale, PhD, is an assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is an evaluation methodologist who studies the valuing process in evaluation; specifically, the activities of defining program success, specifying evaluative criteria, and applying criteria to reach conclusions. Her research examines which definitions of success—and whose definitions—are privileged in evaluation and develops methods for centering community and participant values and voices. Rebecca teaches graduate-level courses in evaluation methods, evaluation theory, and research methods.
