Evaluation Plan
An evaluation plan is a roadmap for your project. It connects your research question to data collection methods. It organizes your work into a clear timeline. Finally, it summarizes your communication strategy to publicize your findings that leads to action.
Your evaluation plan should clearly map out each step of the evaluation process:
The key questions to ask in developing your evaluation plan are:
What is our research question?
Who do we want to ask? Who do we want to collect data from?
How will we answer our question? Do we want to collect data using multiple methods? Whose perspective do we want to gather?
When will we collect data? When does it make sense to collect data? When do we need to finish collecting data so we can move into action?
Who do we want to tell? Make sure you think ahead about how you will communicate findings and take action as a result of your project.
Who will work on each part of our project? Which activities require more than one person? Who has the skills to complete certain activities? Who wants to learn about a certain part of the process?
Your evaluation plan is a “work in progress.” While you should work to meet deadlines and hold team members accountable to their responsibilities, the plan can change as you gain new information and refine your plan.
Activity: Ask & Tell
We encourage teams to use this presentation and facilitation guide to help them walk through this process.
This activity is designed to help your team identify the stakeholders for your project. A stakeholder is anyone who has an interest - or "stake" - in your project and the information you are collecting.
First, your team will consider Who are we going to ASK to get the answer to our research question?
Then, you will discuss Who do we want to TELL that answer to?
The goal is to create a poster that includes your school name, research question, and a list of stakeholders you want to ask about your research question (this group should be brought into conversations about the Collect Data phase in the Evaluation Process), and a list of stakeholders you want to tell about your research findings (see Communicate Findings).
Young people should work to name all their stakeholders. Adults may need to provide support or probing questions. Students at the school, adults at the school, and other people (such as parents, community, or District staff) should be written on different colored post it notes. Each unique group or individual should be written on their own post it note. For example, student stakeholders should include any students/groups who may have a different perspective on your topic, such as a grade level, team or club, or racial/cultural group.
You will then discuss as a group if each stakeholder (i.e. post it note) should be ASKED about your project, TOLD about your project, or both!
Activity: Building Your Evaluation Plan
Below are other activities with examples and templates to guide you to your evaluation plan. The activities intentionally build upon the Ask & Tell activity above.