Building Evaluation Capacity

County Extension agents and program assistants plan, prepare and conduct programing to meet the needs of local residents. They tend to be so absorbed in their teaching that they take their work for granted and fail to collect information to show the outcomes of their labor. 

“Logic Model” training was available to all agents via webinars in the spring and fall. Participating agents understood how logic models are used to plan and manage programs, evaluate and communicate. Participants distinguished levels of outcomes, discussed SMART objectives, and critiqued a county plan of work. During the training, subject area resources were located for use in creating a county plan of work, evaluation tools, and sample success stories. 

During 2017/2018, the Evaluation Specialist visited every Extension district at least once to conduct “Reporting Success.” Programs were conducted for all NEP assistants, District 1 FCS agents, and Jefferson County staff. The interactive trainings included self-evaluation of a success story and use of Bloom’s Taxonomy to describe outcomes and differentiate initial and intermediate outcomes.

Participating agents and program assistants were able to list the five parts of a success story, align their success story with the logic model or plan of work, and drafted a sample success story. Since the trainings, success stories for participating agents and program assistants improved in content (included a situation statement, educational response and outcomes), and used more descriptive verbs when describing their SMART objectives.