An Evaluation Strategy Developed by RAND for the Broad Foundation
Abstract
The evaluation of a grant program may be undertaken for a variety of purposes. An evaluation may simply monitor a grant program's spending, or it may attempt to provide evidence that a leadership initiative is influencing student outcomes. As the W. K. Kellogg Foundation claims, evaluation can lead the foundation and those it supports to greater learning opportunities and more effective programs. Also, it can help the foundation set an example of thoughtful reflection on initiatives (W. K. Kellogg, 1998, i). One important issue to consider when planning an evaluation is whether it is intended to be formative, summative; or both. A formative evaluation takes as its primary purpose helping the grantee to improve a program during the grant period; in this case, its main audience is the grantee organization. A summative evaluation assesses the overall impact of a program, either periodically or at its conclusion. The audience for summative evaluations may include a number of groups, ranging from the grantee and sponsoring foundation to other foundations, other potential sources of future funding, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. During interviews with Broad Foundation staff RAND learned that the foundation wants its evaluation strategy to satisfy multiple purposes. Some of these purposes focus on formative 5 feedback to grantees, and some are more summative in the sense that they focus on the attainment of outcomes. The following list of important purposes is derived from discussions with Broad Foundation staff.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA394792
Entities
People
- Brian Stecher
- Elizabeth Giddens
- Gail Zellman
- Tammi Chun
Organizations
- RAND Corporation