Formative Evaluation Essay Example

Formative Evaluation Essay In doing a project it is important to determine some aspects which could be improved. Program evaluation is a form of social research which utilizes procedures that systematically investigate the effectiveness of certain social intervention or programs (Rossi et al, 1999). According to Patton (1997), program evaluation is the systematic gathering of information regarding the characteristics and outcomes of certain interventions. Herein, the data that will be gathered out of the evaluation will be useful particularly in making judgements about the intervention, improving its effectiveness as well as in informing decisions about future programming. The role of program evaluation is then significant for the development and improvement of various programs being implemented.In doing so, it is important to conduct a formative evaluation. The program evaluation conducted for this new instruction unit will be formative to identify which elements of to be improved and how this can be improved .   Formative evaluation helps in the assessment of efforts and modifying strategies according to the assessment (Scriven in Patton, 1991). Through this evaluation, program developers and implementers, are able to respond better to changes and conflicts involved in the intervention. The people involved in the development and implementation of the intervention can then recalibrate their efforts towards the resolution of these conflicts.   The monitoring property of the formative evaluation is also observed in the program evaluation of the instruction unit consolidated plan, which in turn helps in recognizing opportunities for redefining strategies and programs.   The program evaluation of the city is also characteristically formative as it involves parties including evaluators, sponsors, participants and stakeholders.   Further, formative evaluation helps in binding all parties involved together for better program management and assessment.Person Involved in Decision MakingIn the instruction unit, the person who will help me in making decision about the program includes the project manager and other important stakeholders of this project. For evaluating the instruction unit, the person involved in helping me to decide on the best solution includes the school administration, the teachers and the students who are directly involved in the new instruction unit.Ways to discover the problemsIn order to decide what revisions should be implemented, the evaluation process will conduct an intensive assessment to discover he problems that should be revised or improve. There are three ways on how these problems can be discovered and these include the use of survey questionnaire, in-depth interview and focus group interview approach to the stakeholders. These approaches enable the evaluator to know the feedback of the stakeholders about the new instruction unit. The evaluator will use both qualitative and quantitative approach in order to gather pertinent data that will be used in the assessment.   In this manner, to be able to utilize this concept properly, the evaluator had used interview for the representatives of each agencies related with the instruction unit at both state level and local level, survey questionnaires through mail, and data extraction from documents in local community level.How to make DecisionsIn this evaluation process, the revisions to be made will be decided after the evaluator has been analysed the data gathered from the stakeholders, written documents and the feedback of external stakeholders. In addition, the revisions to be made will also be decided by taking into considerations all the possible solutions to ensure that the problem discovered is solved. The evaluator will also conduct discussion among major stakeholders including the one who made the new instruction unit to explain the areas that ha problems and the recommended solutions after the thorough evaluation.Evidences to be usedIn this evaluation process , the information gathered from the survey and interview method will served as the evidences to ensure that the decision provided is correct and adheres to the needs of the revision of   has been presented in an organized manner and systematic manner.   Furthermore, the evidences that will be used to evaluate the instruction unit also includes the written documents about the new instruction unit before and after it was implemented to determine the essential changes and to identify the problems that needs to be addressed. Aside from these, other evidences that will be considered are the feedback of external stakeholders who have knowledge about the new instruction unit.Herein, the evaluator has used necessary and related information in order to achieve the overall objective of the evaluation.   The information and data gathered had been used in order to formulate plausible conclusion relevant to the purpose and plausible recommendations to be used.ConclusionFor the success of t he instruction unit, the program developer must be able to identify the aspects that needs revision and to be able to easily achieve the objective of the program, it is recommended that the project must be able to provide both agencies from state level and local level a clear roles and comprehensible expectations in order to deliberate their functions well.   It is important so that all the key stakeholders involved and knowledgeable about the program should have clear understanding on their roles and responsibilities so as not to be confused on the objective of the project.The state level agencies must be able to continuously exert an effort to model collaboration and coordination by guaranteeing that planning and reporting needs are rationalized and coordinated. In addition, the state level agency must include additional works to ensure better coordination of coexisting policy initiatives. Existing policy is important in maintaining the efficacy of the changes made to the progra m.In addition, it is also recommended that both state level and local level most have individuals who will continue to advocate the enhancement of the coordination, increased resources for prevention and for implementation of the selected best practices programs to maintain the success of the projectAnother plausible recommendation is to provide intensive support to the appointed coordinators in order to focus their efforts in the most important areas. It is noted that a successful counties tends to be those in which resources were devoted to coordination, compared to the used of both coordination programming. This means that focusing at what area at a time may lead to a successful implementation of program than focusing on various areas at a time.It is important that the people specifically the key stakeholder in the local area and the state area must continuously cooperate to the changes implementation in order to maintain the success of the project. In addition, if people will co operate in every endeavour that the federal government will impose there is a greater possibility of achieving the purpose of the project for the sake of the state as a whole.