Program Development & Evaluation Flashcards

Formative evaluation in program development is conducted:

Answer: During program implementation to make ongoing improvements

Formative evaluation is an ongoing process conducted during implementation that provides feedback to improve and refine program activities in real time.

Summative evaluation is primarily designed to:

Answer: Assess the overall effectiveness and impact of a completed program

Summative evaluation occurs at the end of a program to judge its overall merit, effectiveness, and impact — informing decisions about continuation or replication.

For evaluating participant experiences and understanding barriers to program access, the most appropriate method is:

Answer: In-depth interviews with program participants

In-depth interviews allow participants to share their experiences, perspectives, and barriers in their own words, providing rich qualitative insights unavailable through quantitative methods.

Culturally competent program design requires executive directors to:

Answer: Engage community members from the target population in program planning and design

Cultural competence requires meaningful engagement of community members in program design to ensure relevance, accessibility, and alignment with community values and norms.

Executive directors should use program evaluation results primarily to:

Answer: Inform strategic decisions about program continuation, modification, or expansion

Evaluation results should drive evidence-based decision-making, helping leaders improve program quality, allocate resources effectively, and demonstrate accountability to stakeholders.

In experimental program evaluation, a control group serves to:

Answer: Provide a comparison to isolate the program's effects from other factors

A control group — participants who do not receive the program — provides a baseline comparison that helps isolate whether observed changes are due to the program rather than external factors.

'Program fidelity' in implementation refers to:

Answer: The degree to which a program is delivered according to its original design

Fidelity measures the extent to which a program is implemented as intended, which is critical for attributing outcomes to the program and for successful replication.