Evaluation Basics Guide

Overview

Various aspects of evaluation reporting can affect how information is used. Programs should consider stakeholder needs, the evaluation purpose, and the target audience when communicating results. Evaluation reporting should identify what, when, how, and to what extent information should be shared. Evaluation reporting should also consider how information might be received and used.

Learn more about evaluation reporting and how to ensure use of evaluation findings. You can also download the complete guide.

Evaluation reporting: a guide to help ensure use of evaluation findings

Key considerations for effectively reporting evaluation findings

These steps can help drive your intended users to action or influence someone or something based on the findings presented in your evaluation report.

Engage stakeholders

Stakeholders are people who are invested in the program or potentially affected by the evaluation. Stakeholders can play a key role by offering input throughout the evaluation process to ensure effective and useful reporting of evaluation results.

You can engage stakeholders:

• During the planning phase. Stakeholders can help determine the intended use of the evaluation findings, identify potential primary users of findings, and help develop a reporting and dissemination plan.
• Once data have been collected. Stakeholders can review interim findings, interpret data, help prepare findings, and to help develop potential recommendations.
• When developing the evaluation report. Stakeholders can help define the audience, identify any potential uses of the information, and ensure report findings meet the evaluation purpose.

Revisit the purpose of your evaluation

The purpose determines how the evaluation report and findings are used, who the users are, and the most appropriate type of reporting. There may be multiple purposes for conducting an evaluation.

Two common reasons for evaluating CDC-funded programs are to guide program improvement and to ensure program effectiveness.

• Program improvement. Program staff may want to see a dashboard report of selected indicators and receive regular brief, verbal updates at meetings to learn what midcourse adjustments to make to improve program operations and activities.
• Program effectiveness. A funding entity may ask for a detailed, comprehensive report to demonstrate whether program components contribute to expected outcomes for accountability purposes.

The evaluation's purpose can have a direct effect on how evaluation data are applied and used. Often, the desire is for evaluation recommendations and findings to inform decision making and lead to program improvement. Alternatively, evaluation results may be used to support or justify a preexisting position, resulting in little to no programmatic change.

Define your target audience

Consider and define the target audience of your evaluation report and findings.

• Who are the intended primary users or the specific stakeholders who will most likely use the findings?
• Is the target audience the funding agency of the program, people who are served by the program, or key legislators or decision makers in your local government?

Evaluation findings can be presented differently depending on the target audience and primary evaluation users. Some things to keep in mind about your audience are:

• Effective communication channels. Identify the appropriate, preferred, and commonly used channels of communicating with your audience.
• Desired action. Consider what action you want the audience to take and what is within their sphere of influence. Explore how the target audience makes decisions or decides to take action on the basis of new information.
• Technical expertise or comprehension. Reflect on the level of familiarity the audience has with the subject matter and tailor the level of language to meet their comfort level. Use plain language over more technical language.
• Cultural appropriateness. Ensure that reports are culturally appropriate for the audience.
• Perceptions and expectations. Identify the audience's interest in or expectations of the project. Evaluation results may not always be expected or favorable. Regardless of how the findings are perceived, the opportunity for use remains. Also consider how the audience perceives the evaluator and the evaluation process.
• Presentation of information. Present findings according to the audience's preference. For example, choose between written documentation and oral communication and between presenting anecdotal stories and presenting data.
• Experience and context. Consider how your audience may interpret the findings, based on their understanding and experiences. Provide context where necessary, and keep the methodology description simple.

Making evaluation reports work for you

The format you use to deliver your evaluation findings will affect how and whether the findings are used. Use these tips to help ensure your evaluation findings are used by your stakeholders.

• Use action-oriented reporting. Action-oriented reporting prompts your audience to action. This type of report is focused, simple, and geared toward a particular audience.
• Offer creative options for format of delivery, such as newsletter articles, a website, one-page fact sheets, executive summaries, and PowerPoint presentations or webinars.
• Communicate your findings in a way that the audience can easily understand. Write content to describe graphs, tables, and charts. Do not assume that your readers will look at both the displays and the narrative. Ensure that all of your graphs, tables, and charts can stand alone.
• Interpret the findings. Interpretation means looking beyond the data and asking what the results mean in relation to your evaluation questions. It is always a good idea to review the results with selected stakeholders before completing an evaluation report. This review can be accomplished by circulating an interim or draft report and meeting to discuss it together.
• Include recommendations and lessons learned. The recommendations should address specific findings and be feasible, realistic, actionable, and tailored to intended users. A report that details lessons learned is particularly useful in contributing to public health practices and reporting for accountability purposes.

Keeping it off the bookshelf—the importance of dissemination

Effective dissemination requires a plan to get the right knowledge to the right people at the right time and to help them apply it in ways that may improve a program’s performance.

Step 1: Create a dissemination plan

Your dissemination plan should answer these questions:

• Who is the target audience?
• What medium will you use to disseminate findings—hardcopy print, electronic, presentations, briefings?
• How, where, and when will findings be used?
• Who is responsible for dissemination?
• What resources are available to accomplish the work?
• What are the follow-up activities after release?
• How will follow-up activities be monitored?

Step 2: Identify a person to oversee the dissemination plan

Identify a person to lead the dissemination effort. This person makes sure that the dissemination plan is carried out. They person should have experience making information accessible and understandable to different audiences.

Step 3: Know the current landscape

Recognize that most reports have a shelf life and most findings have a “relevancy date.” Be knowledgeable about your context, and select optimal release times. For example, if there is a great deal of media coverage about a topic related to your work, such as helping families stay healthy, you may wish to be con­nected to an existing press release or press conference. If your topic has received negative publicity, on the other hand, you may wish to “plan around” this coverage.

Step 4: Consider the timing and frequency

Dissemination works best when multiple products (e.g., a full report, a summary report, an evaluation brief) and channels (i.e., print, verbal, and Web) are used.

Step 5: Stay involved

Convene follow-up discussions and facilitation as needed to ensure continued use of the report. You can take advantage of events that may help keep continued focus on your findings, such as social media, brown-bag lunches, meetings, conferences, or workshops.