Training your Target to Strengthen your Evaluation

Audience: The Louisiana Tobacco Control Program’s Schools Putting Prevention to Work program initially assisted 27 of Louisiana’s 69 school districts to draft, implement, and sustain a wellness policy that supports 100% tobacco-free school campuses and activities. Project leaders from each participating school district attended three, day-long training workshops over the project period. Each session provided “what-to”, “how-to”, and “why-to” information relevant to project objectives and required activities. Key Points: Basic progress and accomplishments of each school district were tracked through systematic monthly reporting. In addition, a series of three open-ended questionnaires was developed to collect detailed information on effectiveness of project activities and overall project impact and manageability. Topics coincided with the project activity timeline. Questionnaires were sent and received electronically. Beyond staff time, no cost was associated with this evaluation component. Educational Experience: During the initial training workshop, one session was devoted entirely to project evaluation. This included: value of the evaluation (what and why); incorporating evaluation into a project (how and when); evaluator’s expectations – what constitutes a useful response (examples); survey schedule; suggested supporting materials. The second training workshop included an evaluation update. The project evaluator presented highlights of data-to-date, providing more working examples of how to report observations, reactions, success stories, or implementation difficulties. During the third workshop, project leaders presented their own information, prompting idea sharing and problem solving, and informing program modifications for long-term sustainability. Benefits: An inexpensive questionnaire can be a highly effective evaluation tool, if the target understands how to respond.