Evaluation 2017
November 6-11, 2017 in Washington, DC
CONFERENCE INFORMATION
Registration: Click here to register.
Hotel: Conference hotel and secondary lodging information are available here.
Student Volunteers: If you are a student and interested in volunteering, you can register for the conference free of charge. Click here to sign-up.
Explore D.C.: The Washington Evaluators compiled a great guide for those attending Eval17. If you plan on exploring the D.C. area, this is a a must have. Grab a copy here.
Looking for additional information? AEA provides more detail on session types, travel information, networking, and more under Meeting Information here.
AZNET MEMBER PRESENTATIONS
Evaluating Shared Use Projects Using Community Based Participatory Research and Evaluation
Presenters: Eileen Eisen Cohen, Breanne Lott, Kenneth Steele, Rebecca Henry, Ilana Parsai
Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 2017 / 1:15 PM - 2:00 PM
Track: Collaborative, Participatory & Empowerment Evaluation
Maricopa County experiences a large gap in quality of living and longevity from one zip code to the other. This is the result of inequities related to social factors. One strategy that may help reduce inequities is shared-use. Maricopa County Department of Public Health and Vitalyst Health Foundation funded six organizations to implement a diversity of shared use projects, including a community garden, opening school gyms and libraries to the public after school-hours, and offering GED and Zumba classes to the community. The purpose was to increase opportunities to learn, play, interact with other community members and exercise. The long-term goal was to increase community health. In this presentation the evaluators will discuss each of the projects and the mix methods used to evaluate them. The evaluation guided by Community Based Participatory Research and Evaluation (CBPRE) framework included community surveys, focus groups, stakeholder interviews, and field observations.
Interpersonal Effectiveness: Using Collaborative Communication to Reflect on and Improve Evaluation Practice
Presenters: Tiffany Lee Smith, Deven Lee Wisner, Denton Stutte
Date/Time: Wednesday, November 8, 2017 / 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Track: Professional Development Workshop
The Essential Competencies for Program Evaluators (2005), established by Stevahn, King, Ghere, and Minnema, highlight interpersonal competence as one of the key components of a competent evaluation practitioner. Training in interpersonal effectiveness is of utmost importance in every component of evaluation, from initial contact with a stakeholder to following up on evaluation use and program improvement. In this highly interactive workshop, participants will experience a process of dialogue called collaborative communication (CC). While highlighting essential communication skills, this process will be used as a way to reflect with others, on ones own practice. Additionally, participants will consider ways in which to use CC in their own practice, such as in maintaining self-awareness, appreciating other people’s communication, building relationships, establishing critical friendships, productive conflict management, problem solving, facilitating effective communication, and much more.
Let Us Show You the Ropes: A Process That Utilizes Evaluators-in-Training as Ideal Mentors
Presenters: Levi John Roth, Phillop Stoeklen, Deven Lee Wisner
Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 2017 / 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Track: Evaluation Managers and Supervisors
The Applied Research Center (ARC) at the University of Wisconsin-Stout specializes in program evaluation for educational institutions, non-profits, and organizations. Each year, the ARC hires students from the M.S. Applied Psychology program as graduate assistants (GAs). Unlike traditional research assistantships, the ARC provides practical experience interacting with stakeholders, writing technical business reports, managing project tasks and timelines, and conducting research in real world settings. The ARC accomplishes this with a “Train the Trainer” model. The office staff provides high level training to the GAs in evaluation practice, while also providing an opportunity to mentor the new employees on fundamental evaluation and research skills. This session will include an explanation of the ARC model for incorporating graduate students in evaluation and research projects. In addition, the ARC will describe and share some of the tools used to manage GA tasks and ensure project quality.
Who’s a Utilization-Focused Evaluator?: Exploring Professional Evaluator Perceptions of the Seventeen Steps to UFE
Presenters: Deven Lee Wisner, Phillip Stoeklen, Tiffany Lee Smith, Libby Smith
Date/Time: Wednesday, November 8, 2017 / 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Track: Evaluation Practice
Utilization-Focused Evaluation (UFE) is a very popular approach to evaluation utilized in many classrooms and practitioner settings. However, little research has been done regarding the perceptions of evaluation practitioners regarding the utilization of Patton’s (2011) 17 step process. The proposed presentation will serve as an opportunity to share professional evaluators’ views regarding the use and perceived importance of Patton’s 17-Step Checklist for UFE. This survey study is a quantitative expansion on a qualitative case study of evaluation practitioners regarding the importance and use of the steps that was presented at AEA 2016. The results gleaned from the prior investigation prompted researchers to explore the pragmatism of the checklist as well as the most used components of it, regardless of the evaluation model an evaluator ascribes to. This research is important to the growth and refinement of UFE but also serves as a reflective opportunity for attendees as evaluation practitioners.
EVENTS
Coming soon!