Program Evaluation Services

Program evaluation is systematic research into whether a program is working, for whom, and why. It covers formative evaluation that improves a program while it runs and summative evaluation that assesses what it accomplished. Good evaluation answers questions your team has as well as questions your funder has.

Formative evaluation happens during the program and is meant to improve it, so it reports on implementation, early results, and what should change. Summative evaluation happens at the end and assesses outcomes. Most funded programs are expected to do both.

Evaluation is commonly budgeted at roughly five to ten percent of total program cost. Designs requiring randomization, multiple sites, or data collection over several years cost more than that, and smaller formative evaluations cost less. We provide a fixed-scope quote after an initial consultation.

It follows the program. A single-year formative evaluation runs the length of the program year plus reporting time. Multi-year impact evaluations run the full grant period, often three to five years. Shorter retrospective evaluations of a completed program typically take three to five months.

Yes, though it limits the design. Some rigorous approaches need comparison groups or baseline measures established before the program starts. If you're already mid-implementation we'll tell you which designs are still available and what claims the resulting evidence will support.

Only if your funder requires that level of evidence or you intend to make a causal claim about impact. RCTs are expensive and often impractical in real programs. Quasi-experimental designs, matched comparison groups, and strong mixed-method studies answer many evaluation questions well at a fraction of the cost.

You do, unless a funder agreement says otherwise. We'll agree data ownership, storage, and publication terms in writing at the start of the project.

We report what we found. Funders and boards are generally good at recognizing an evaluation that overstates results, and doing so damages your credibility for every report afterward. Findings that show a program working for some participants and not others are common and usually more useful than a flat positive result, because they tell you what to change.

Yes. Some organizations want a single evaluation and others want measurement infrastructure they can run themselves. We build instruments, data collection routines, and dashboards, and train your staff to maintain them.

Yes, extensively. Our team has run research with K-12 schools and districts across all 50 states and with international schools, and we know how district research approval processes work and how far ahead they need to start.