Exercises — Chapter 10: The Evaluation Plan

Part C builds your real logic model and objectives. Selected answers in the appendix.

Part A — Recall and Understand

10.1. State the threshold concept in one sentence. Why has evaluation become more decisive?

10.2. Write the logic-model chain and define each element. What's the key distinction beginners blur?

10.3. Distinguish process from outcome evaluation, and explain why a plan needs both.

10.4. What does SMART stand for? What four things does each objective need beyond the objective itself?

10.5. Distinguish formative from summative, and internal from external evaluation.

10.6. For research, what is a power analysis and why is an underpowered study a fatal flaw?

Part B — Apply

10.7. Output or outcome? Classify each: (a) "300 meals served"; (b) "food insecurity fell from 40% to 25%"; (c) "12 workshops held"; (d) "participants' job-readiness scores rose."

10.8. Make it SMART. Convert "improve community health" into a SMART objective with indicator, target, source, and method (invent plausible specifics).

10.9. Spot the missing comparison. "85% of participants scored proficient at program end." What's missing to make this interpretable, and how would you fix it?

10.10. Fix the indicators. Identify the trap in each and improve it: (a) "participants will feel more hopeful"; (b) "we'll track social-media followers"; (c) a 10-year follow-up of participants you'll lose contact with.

10.11. Check the logic model. A model lists: Activities = "run workshops"; Outcomes = "community is transformed." What's wrong with the activities→outcomes link, and how would you tighten it?

Part C — Analyze and Create (your real project)

10.12. Build your logic model. Construct the full chain (inputs → activities → outputs → outcomes → impact) and check it right-to-left.

10.13. Write SMART objectives. For each outcome, write a SMART objective with indicator, target (justified), data source, and method/timing. Lay them out as a matrix.

10.14. Add process measures. Add process/implementation measures (delivery, fidelity, reach) so you can interpret your outcomes.

10.15. Decide who evaluates. Choose internal vs. external based on funder expectation, stakes, and budget; note any evaluator.

10.16. (Research) Draft the analysis plan. Specify endpoints, statistical analysis, and a power/sample-size justification.

Part M — Mixed Review

10.17. (From Ch 5) How is the logic model the "connective tissue," and what does each link map to?

10.18. (From Ch 9) How does the evaluation relate to the approach, and what does process evaluation let you interpret?

10.19. (From Ch 6/7) What coherence must hold between your evaluation and your promised outcomes?

Reflection

10.20. Learning check-in. Did you treat the evaluation as paperwork or as a genuine way to learn whether your project works? Which mindset did you bring, and how did it shape what you wrote?