Outcomes and processes of a residential program evaluation when your data set hands you lemons /

by Reiger, Christopher J.

OUTCOMES AND PROCESSES OF A RESIDENTIAL PROGRAM EVALUATION: WHEN YOUR DATA SET HANDS YOU LEMONS By Christopher J. Reiger Sometimes the most interesting findings a research project can yield do not lie within the outcomes that it produces, but in the investigation process itself. Although launched with the single purpose of conducting an evaluation for Wediko Children’s Services of its short-term residential program, this research project bore products that would be of interest to a larger population of program evaluators/field-based researchers. This is an evaluation effort told in three parts. In the first part, an outcomes study of a subpopulation of Wediko’s program participants (children who attended the program and reapplied one year later) is described. Additional levels of analyses were conducted in an effort to explicate process issues that arose during the proposal, data collection, and statistical analysis phases of the study. These analyses, explained in the second part, yielded the identification of barriers that arose during this study’s undertaking and recommendations to the agency under evaluation on how to begin to implement strategies to improve its quality assurance practices. In the third part, the author’s responses to the project and a collection of valuable lessons learned on the subject of program evaluation/field-based research are described; one being that you should never underestimate the value of simply asking questions!