The
chapter Evaluating Macro Practice, focused on the importance of
Evaluation at a macro level for social workers. The chapter broke
down the learning content revolved around program evaluation. This was
done by explaining how to recognize the context of program evaluation;
how to utilize the concepts that are important in the process; using
program evaluation research to inform practice;
successfully identifying barriers and problems in completing
evaluations; ways to describe and analyze different models of
evaluation; utilizing the stages and steps in performing an evaluation;
demonstrating effective professional communication when presenting
data; and best ways to make ethical decisions in evaluation that are
based upon the values and ethics of the NASW Code of Ethics.
Evaluation
is a process that is essential in determining whether a given change
effort was worthwhile. The evaluation process measures
a variety of factors within a program, such as: finances, time spent
serving clients, number of clients served, who uses the services and
when, who is being affected by the services, how the program is being
ran, and outcomes. The key purpose of program evaluation
is to ensure continued funding, services to clients and employment for
self and staff. Performing evaluations helps us determine if any
improvements need to be made within the program and if so were. It also
allows us to know if the program is doing what it
set forth to do, and which services within the program produces the
best outcomes. Each year’s evaluation allows you to build support for
continuing to provide clients with an effective program.
There
are two types of evaluations, formative and summative. Formative
evaluations focus on monitoring the process and summative evaluations
focus on the impact. Evaluations can either be used to measure the
effectiveness of an intervention or its efficiency. The type of
evaluation one chooses is usually determined by the program being
evaluated. This also corresponds with the kinds of research
and research tools used to gather data. Evaluation at the macro level
can be viewed from different perspectives; one can look at the
effectiveness of specific programs. Another evaluation could be
evaluating your own success as a macro practice social worker.
Last but not least an evaluation may also focus on outcome explanation.
When explaining how the outcome was achieved the evaluation is geared
towards the process rather than the outcome. It does not matter which
evaluation you may be performing, they all come
to a conclusion about what we are doing. The end conclusion may concern
the effectiveness, cost, relationships between events, or several other
factors.
Although,
conducting an evaluation on your program is the key to keeping it up
and going, it does not come easy. As a social worker you
will run into problems and barriers in program evaluation. In this
chapter six common problems and barriers are discussed; which include:
failure to plan for evaluation, lack of program stability, relationships
between evaluation results that are not accepted,
and evaluations that are not worth the effort.
Knowing
the stages and steps to follow in evaluating a macro intervention can
stop you from running into so many problems and barriers.
The seven steps discussed are: conceptualization and goal setting,
measurement, sampling, design, data gathering, data analysis, and data
presentation. Following these steps is ones guide to successfully
performing and evaluation. Last but not least the chapter
focused on the Ethics and Values in evaluation. One factor that stood
out to me was that as a social worker you should be well versed with the
NASW Code of Ethics when conducted an evaluation.
Looking
at the JVL community and thinking about the possible interventions that
can be put into place to address the issues and concerns
the community faces; I now know just how important it will be to
evaluate the programs. If we plan to bring about any small change that
can help the community we must plan to collect data on the program to
determine its effectiveness as well as its efficiency.
This information can determine whether a program continues or is
abandoned.
Thanks Twylaa, good summary. The area of evaluation is so important to our practice and improvement. I know within Children's Division we are always looking at data and applying it to our practice to evaluate the job we are doing. This evaluation tends to be closely monitored on the management and upper management level. I think we need to do a better job of explaining the impact of the evaluations and data to staff and community partners. If we don't explain it then the data just becomes numbers. The evaluations that are performed directly affects our practice. Positive changes can be made and impact our practice with children and families.
ReplyDeleteI think that the code of Ethics is one of the most important pieces to our practice as social workers. In a way its our Ten Commandments. I feel like at UMSL we do not address the code of Ethics enough. While I was attending University of Kentucky it was drilled into us along with building report. These are really useful guides and tools that we need to be armed with as social workers.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree Kylee. I know that there are constant evaluations conducted on programs at CD but I feel it is so important to disseminate that information accurately and quickly to employees so they understand what is being evaluated and why. I think an important piece of evaluation is also gathering input from staff and other community partners to get ideas, suggestions, etc. on ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness. I believe it is very important to continuously evaluate but also as important is providing that information and the results to those that are impacted by it.
ReplyDeleteThat was a great summary. Evaluations are done in so many fields and in social work it is a big part of EBP. I think Kara is right. i would like to see more ethically challenging situations and options for those as a student. I think it would be really helpful because there isn't always a correct answer.
ReplyDeleteAshley you are exactly right, a lot of times there isn't a correct answer. That is one of the very first things they taught us at Kentucky. I think as social workers it would be really beneficially if we were required to take a couple ethics courses because a lot of times there is no one correct answer. But if we all use the same steps to choose the best solution then as a unit we will be upholding the the code of ethics to the best of our ability.
ReplyDeleteGreat summary, I think the area of evaluation is often the step people tend to skim over, especially if their program isn’t working how they thought it would. Evaluation is also beneficial when deciding if changes could be made to the program that would improve it. I think people tend to think of evaluations as step that makes or breaks a program; they do not realize how it is helpful it can be when making adjustments or how it can be used to improve programs.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about referencing the Code of Ethics at UMSL. My first semester here we learned pretty in depth about it, but it has rarely been mentioned in courses since. If it has been mentioned, it was as if we were supposed to have it memorized. In order for that to happen, we need to offer more Ethics courses that focus solely on that.
ReplyDeleteGood summary Twylaa, and good discussion, everybody. It seems difficult to craft an evaluation that accurately measures what you are trying to measure and provide reliable feedback. It also seems that people tend to want to share negative information more often than positive, so you could end up with negative feedback that was not reflective of everyone’s experience.
ReplyDeleteAshley and Kara I agree with you all. As social workers there is not always a right or wrong answer and that is were the code of ethics come into play. As far as barriers these partake in everyday programs or situations, in which we must learn to handle better.
ReplyDelete