What is Evaluation Flashcards
Which of the following would make a good question for an impact evaluation?
What role does ethnicity play in student results?
Will providing kids with deworming pills improve school attendance?
What share of kids in Tanzania drop out of school before completing primary?
The answer: Will providing kids with deworming pills improve school attendance?
“What share of kids in Tanzania drop out of school before completing primary?” is a descriptive question that can be answered with descriptive data. There is no causal hypothesis. “What role does ethnicity play in student results?” asks a causal question (the cause of ethnicity on student achievement), but there is no intervention that is being evaluated. One can not enroll in an ethnicity nor change it. “Will providing kids with deworming pills improve school attendance?” asks a cause and effect question: with an intervention (deworming pills) and an outcome (school attendance)
What kind of evaluation is most appropriate to answer the following question? “In our program to distribute free textbooks, is the NGO successfully delivering textbooks to the classrooms?”
This question asks whether an existing program is achieving its first-level output: delivery of textbooks. This can be measured through a process evaluation. A needs assessment is almost correct, and would be acceptable if the question were phrased in a way to suggest the potential need for a new intervention. However, this question is asked within the context of an existing program. A program theory assessment might be appropriate if the question were hypothetical, or theoretical, or phrased in a way that suggested a potential program. However this question is asked within the context of an existing program. An impact evaluation typically looks at a program’s effect on outcomes, not outputs. Cost-effectiveness/cost-benefit analysis is incorrect because there is no question about impact or cost.
