Orchestra Outreach

Assessment

For Afterschool Programs

    A group from the Harvard Family Research Project  wrote an article called Documenting Progress and Demonstrating Results: Evaluating Local Out-of-School Time Programs .  They provided a plain language, informative introduction to the issues surrounding program assessment.  As one highlight, they list a series of ways program evaluations are useful that could also apply to orchestra outreach programs:

Why conduct program evaluations?

To make management decisions.  Evaluation data help make internal management decisions about what is working and what is not working, where improvement is needed, and how scarce resources can be allocated.

To demonstrate accountability.  Evaluation data can be used to demonstrate to current funders that their investment is yielding the intended results. Evaluation results can also be used in marketing tools, such as brochures or published reports, that help promote a program to potential participants, the media, and potential funders.

To build a case for sustainability.  Evaluation results can be used to show the impact a program has had on an individual, family, school, or neighborhood, and thereby secure funding for sustainability. (p. 2)

Here again some of the same themes of administrative efficiency, documented impact, and sustainability arise.  In the competition or collaboration for resources, it is crucial to have demonstrable outcomes.

    As an interesting discussion of how large scale policy is affected by documentation of measurable outcomes, the U.S. Department of Education  report   When Schools Stay Open Late: The National Evaluation of the 21^st Century Community Learning Centers Program First Year Findings  was published in January of 2003.  Colloquially called “The Mathematica Report,” it focuses on ways that the intended outcomes of the 21^st Century Learning Centers were not as effective as many had hoped. This may be partly attributable to extraneous factors as the Afterschool Alliance authors discuss, but the fact remains that this report will have an impact on the national availability of resources for such partnerships.