CDC: Checklist to help focus your evaluation

This checklist, created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), helps you to assess potential evaluation questions in terms of their relevance, feasibility, fit with the values, nature and theory of change of the program, and the level of stakeholder engagement.

This resource was contributed to BetterEvaluation by Robin Kuwahara. The information below was supplied by Patricia Rogers.

Authors and their affiliation

Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Key features

The checklist is designed to be used to review proposed key evaluation questions. It could also be used to inform the process of developing key evaluation questions.

How have you used or intend on using this resource?

I have not yet used this resource but plan to next time I’m involved in developing or reviewing proposed key evaluation questions.

Why would you recommend it to other people?

It’s a a brief and clear checklist which not only identifies important criteria but also provides space for explaining why it might be a suitable question even if it doesn’t meet this  - for example, having had stakeholder involvement in developing the questions, which might be desirable but not essential.

Contents

  • When to use the checklist
  • When not to use the checklist
  • How to use the checklist
  • Checklist for assessing your evaluation questions

Sources

Centre for Disease Control and Prevention CDC (2013). Good Evaluation Questions: Checklist to Help Focus Your Evaluation. Department of Health & Human Services - USA. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/asthma/program_eval/AssessingEvaluationQuestionChecklist.pdf

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