Next week we will join evaluation professionals from across the country in Atlanta at Evaluation 2016, the annual conference of the American Evaluation Association. If you also plan to be there, we hope to see you at one of these sessions where our team will be presenting with clients and partners! If you can’t attend in person, keep an eye on our twitter feed @HarderCo and the hashtag #eval2016 to follow the conversations.
Designed for Learning: Engaging Funders and Grantees in Pursuit of Meaningful Measures
- Aimée Fribourg, Research Associate, Harder+Company
- Joyce Ybarra, Director of Learning, Weingart Foundation
Based on our partnership with staff at the Weingart Foundation, this demonstration will share our approach to developing a learning and assessment system for unrestricted grants.
Wed, Oct 26 | 6:15 PM – 7:00 PM
Room: International South 5
Navigating the Power Dynamics of Place-based Evaluations
- Sonia Taddy-Sandino, Senior Vice President, Harder+Company
- Meg Long, President, Equal Measure
- Andi Zaverl, Research Analyst, First 5 LA
Drawing from the rich experience of two place-based efforts – a national youth development initiative with 21 sites across the country and an early childhood initiative in 14 high-need communities in Los Angeles, the panel will share specific examples of how evaluation can help catalyze conversations, inform strategic decision-making, and ultimately improve results.
Wed, Oct 26 | 6:15 PM – 7:00 PM
Room: International North C
Engaging Internal Stakeholders to Design Systems Change Evaluations, Findings and Products
- Sonia Taddy-Sandino, Senior Vice President, Harder+Company
- Matthew Kronz, Research Associate, Harder+Company
- Allison Wallin, Senior Research Analyst, First 5 LA
This roundtable will highlight key strategies for working with program staff to ensure that systems evaluations promote organizational learning and to help translate complex findings into clear, actionable recommendations at the organizational level.
Thu, Oct 27 | 1:00 PM – 1:45 PM ET
Room: L506
Let’s Make Love, Not War – How Evaluators and Communicators Can Embrace for Success
- Kevin Rafter, Director of Client Engagement, Harder+Company
- Seth Klukoff, Senior Director of Communications, Equal Measure
In this Roundtable, we will share practical tips and tricks for evaluators to work effectively with communications staff. We also will encourage participants to share their stories, and offer additional ideas for working together.
Fri, Oct 28 | 3:30 PM – 4:15 PM
Room: L505
Strengthening Program Evaluation when RCT is not Feasible: Propensity Score Matching in Practice
- Joelle Greene, Senior Research Associate, Harder+Company
- Michael Scuello, Senior Associate for Design and Analysis, Metis Associates
- Donna Tapper, Managing Senior Associate, Metis Associates
- Miranda Yates, Assistant Executive Director, Strategy, Evaluation, and Learning, Good Shepherd Services
As more funders encourage grantees to evaluate program effectiveness, there is growing interest in alternatives to the Randomized Control Trial (RCT) approach, which serves as the gold standard in the field. This panel will share the state of the art from an alternative approach, Propensity Score Matching (PSM) including challenges and opportunities in data collection, sampling, and measurement.
Fri, Oct 28 | 4:30 PM – 5:15 PM
Room: A601
Designing Impact: How to Support and Evaluate Programs that Aim for Scale
- Clare Nolan, Chief Strategy Officer, Harder+Company
- Julia Coffman, Director, Center for Evaluation Innovation
This demonstration will explore the implications of different scaling approaches for evaluation by considering designs, tools, and methods that are relevant to initiatives focused on scale.
Sat, Oct 29 | 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Room: A707
Evaluation as Learning Ambassador: Using Data to Drive Learning and Strategy
- Jennifer James, Senior Vice President, Harder+Company
- Sonia Taddy-Sandino, Senior Vice President, Harder+Company
- Kyle Sargent, Program Officer, Health Coverage, The Colorado Health Foundation
- Kristin Pieper, Senior Project Manager, Covering Kids and Families, Colorado Community Health Network
- Lori Nascimento, Evaluation Manager, The California Endowment
This panel will present the evaluation process and lessons from two projects to support Affordable Care Act implementation in California and Colorado, where funders and technical assistance organizations are supporting outreach and enrollment work in communities across each state. We will share approaches for engaging diverse stakeholders in collective sense-making and show how evaluators support programmatic, organizational, and system level learning that translates into improved outcomes for communities.
Sat, Oct 29 | 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Room: M303
The Intersection between Program Evaluation and Program Design: Case Studies and Lessons Learned from the Field
- Joelle Greene, Senior Research Associate, Harder+Company
- Matthew Kronz, Research Associate, Harder+Company
- Loraine Park, Director, Harder+Company
- Scott McGrath, Supervisor, First 5 San Bernardino
Occasionally, evaluation findings suggest the need for changes to the fundamental structure of a program. In such cases, evaluators become key participants in program design, a role that may not be familiar or comfortable. This demonstration session will share lessons about shifting perspective and role from evaluation to design using two case studies as illustrations.
Sat, Oct 29 | 10:45 AM – 11:30 AM
Room: International South 10