HS 307F — Policy and Program Evaluation

Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit. Combines different teaching pedagogies including lectures, team projects, individual paper, class discussion sessions, and expert-led conversations.

Evaluation includes a range of assessments that can use qualitative and quantitative methods to answer questions about the expected results of a project or program. Different types of evaluations may support different stages of a project or program. Formative evaluations may take place to inform project design, such as needs assessments, gender analyses, or evidence syntheses. Process evaluations may take place during implementation to monitor how well projects activities are working to support the intended results (some examples are beneficiary assessments, outcome harvesting, and quality assessments). Impact evaluations may start before project implementation and run to project completion and focus on providing new evidence on the effectiveness of activities for policy and financing decisions. Summative evaluations or outcome evaluations may take place after implementing a key phase of a project to assess effectiveness in achieving the expected development objectives. Usually offered every year.

Sakshi Jain