PROCESS EVALUATION: HOW IT WORKS

1 109 PROCESS EVALUATION: HOW IT WORKSGary Bess, , Michele King, and Pamela L. LeMaster, : PROCESS evaluation helps us to understand theplanning PROCESS . This predominantly qualitative approachexplains how and why decisions are made and activitiesundertaken. The focus includes feelings and perceptions ofprogram staff. The evaluator s ability to interpret andlongitudinally summarize the experience of program staff andcommunity members is critical. Techniques discussedinclude participant observation, content analysis, situationalanalysis, in-house surveys, and interviews. By combiningsources and methods, a fuller picture of the PROCESS exactly is PROCESS evaluation?

2 Is it really evaluation at all?The answers to these questions may be less straightforward than thequestions themselves. PROCESS evaluation, as an emerging area of evaluationresearch, is generally associated with qualitative research methods, thoughone might argue that a quantitative approach, as will be discussed, can alsoyield important offer this definition of PROCESS evaluation developed by the FederalBureau of Justice Administration:1 PROCESS Evaluation focuses on how a program wasimplemented and operates. It identifies the proceduresundertaken and the decisions made in developing theprogram.

3 It describes how the program operates, theservices it delivers, and the functions it carries out ..However, by additionally documenting the program sdevelopment and operation, PROCESS evaluation assessesreasons for successful or unsuccessful performance, andprovides information for potential replication [italics added].110 VOLUME 11, NUMBER 2 The last sentence in this definition is at the heart of processevaluation's importance for Circles of Care (CoC). PROCESS evaluation is atool for recording and documenting salient ideas, concerns, activities,administrative and management structures, staffing patterns, products, andresources that emerge during three-year CoC planning grants.

4 Unlike outcomeevaluation, which often measures the results of a project s implementationagainst its programmatic projections, there are not necessarily a prioriassumptions about what the planning PROCESS will look , as discussed in an earlier chapter on the life cycle ofthe evaluation PROCESS , there are stage-specific developmental activitiesoccurring within the program. While the specific context will vary acrossprojects, we may assume that there are common dynamics ( , PROCESS ,Development and Action Stages) that when understood can frame theexperience and be helpful to participants and next generation essence, PROCESS evaluation entails tracing the footsteps that CoCstaff, as well as others involved in planning activities, have taken in order tounderstand the paths that have been traveled, as well as journeys startedand later abandoned.

5 This PROCESS is akin to the grounded theory approachof qualitative evaluation (Artinian, 1988; Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Processevaluation is an inductive method of theory construction, whereby observationcan lead to identifying strengths and weaknesses in program processes andrecommending needed improvements (Rubin & Babbie, 2001, p. 584).To better understand PROCESS evaluation aligned with the qualitativetradition, we borrow from Rubin and Babbie (1993) for an operational definitionof qualitative methods:Research methods that emphasize depth of understanding,that attempt to tap the deeper meaning of humanexperience, and that intend to generate theoretically richer,observations which are not easily reduced to numbers aregenerally termed qualitative methods.

6 (p. 30).We deduce from this definition the evaluator s unique role as thetool that synthesizes the human (collective) experience of CoC of methods participant or direct observation, unstructured orintensive interviewing it is the evaluator who ultimately classifies,aggregates, or disaggregates themes that emerge as a result of the has been discussed elsewhere in this Special Issue, the evaluator srelationship with the CoC team is an integral part of the evaluation. It isespecially paramount with regard to PROCESS evaluation, given the relativeintimacy of interaction required by some of the data collection may be expected, this at your side approach can intensify strained orsuspicious relationships between the evaluator and program EVALUATION: HOW IT WORKS111As one CoC program staff member explains:When I think about these terms qualitative research and participant observer, I feel the abusive history of my peoplestaring me in the face.

7 Intense feelings of anger, hurt, andbetrayal all come into play. Being in a fish bowl comes tomind, as do memories of tourists who visited the mission, which stood on my reservation, and took pictures of the Indian children, and made comments like how poor and uncivilized we I understand the term participant observation, I feelinsulted. Feelings of betrayal, falsehoods, and sacrilegecome to mind. Our culture and our way of processing iswho we are as a people. It is all very intimate in nature. InCircles of Care we trusted to open ourselves up, to shareourselves, our culture, and to take the time to know thosewho were not of our culture.

8 This was a big step and notone taken lightly. Knowing that someone participated asone of us, yet in turn dissects the PROCESS , is not being evaluation thus requires vigilance on the part of the evaluatorto respect the trust that has been afforded him or her by American Indianand Alaska Native (AI/AN) program staff. The evaluator s observations andcomments should be made knowing that there are cultural and historicovertones and undercurrents that influence the interpretation of events, aswell as the meaning that CoC program staff assign to the PROCESS evaluationdescription. PROCESS evaluation, just like any other form of assessment,requires cultural sensitivity and awareness.

9 It may be that certain techniques( , participant observation) are not appropriate tools for evaluators thatenter a program without prior relationships with the CoC program addressed at the onset the evaluator s role in processassessment, and mindful that working relationships will evolve during thelife cycle of the project, the evaluator is ready to engage in the processevaluation. There are several conventional evaluation techniques that canbe used to discern and describe the CoC planning PROCESS itself. They are:participant observation, content analysis, situational analysis, in-housesurveys, and interviews.

10 This multi-source approach is consistent with Marcus (1988) recommendation that the collection of official documentation shouldbe combined with the input of key actors. Strauss and Corbin (1990) alsosupport this approach by advocating for qualitative data collection from agrounded theory perspective. They point to the emergence of arepresentativeness of concepts, which is to say that themes can be generalizedbased on the similarities across the phenomena being 11, NUMBER 2 With the exception of in-house surveys, these techniques arequalitative in nature, suggesting that Rubin and Babbie s (1993) definition ofqualitative research s focus on understanding and the deeper meaning ofhuman experience is most apt in the PROCESS evaluation domain.