U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research. A Guide to Evaluating Crime Control of Programs in Public Housing. Washington, DC: Prepared for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by KRA Corporation; 1997. pp. 1.4-1.5.
Common concerns about evaluation
Concern #1. Evaluation diverts resources from the program itself. Although an evaluation will cost something, it does not have to divert resources from other program activities. Consider developing a separate budget to support an evaluation. For example, when creating your initial program budget, you could divide the money into two distinct components-one for program activities and one for the evaluation. If your agency has funds set aside for research purposes, your evaluation could be funded from this pool of money. Or you could obtain financial support from a source other than the one funding your programmatic activities.
Concern #2. Evaluation increases the burden on program staff. Often program staff are responsible for collecting evaluation information because they are the most familiar with program participants and have the most contact with them. Despite this potential for increased burden, staff can benefit greatly from evaluation because it provides information that can help the staff improve their work with participants, learn more about program and participant needs, and validate their successes. Also, it's possible to decrease the burden on staff somewhat by incorporating evaluation into ongoing program activities. More information on how to do this appears in chapter 5.
Concern #3. Evaluation is too complicated. This is a common misconception. An evaluation is intended to answer basic questions about programs. Usually, evaluation questions include the following:
Concern #4. Evaluation may produce negative results and hurt the program. An evaluation may show that the program has not worked, but it is more likely to show that the program alone is not responsible for any changes that may have occurred. The goal of most evaluations is to determine whether changes can be attributed to a particular component of the program.
Concern #5. Evaluation is another form of monitoring. Evaluation is not the same as monitoring. However, often the information examined to monitor program operations is similar or can overlap with the information needed to conduct an evaluation. Monitoring looks at whether the program elements are being provided. For example, are staff doing what is called for by the program plan? Are they spending their time on appropriate program activities? Evaluation differs from monitoring in that it attempts to relate the desired outcomes to the program activities to see whether these activities produced the outcomes.