Public Policy Center | Part 5: Program Evaluation

Part 5: Program Evaluation

In a series of questions relating to program evaluation, the majority of survey respondents’ programs do evaluate client success rates after 1 year, although they do not evaluate client success rates after 3 years; they measure client success rates by monitoring sobriety and relapses, re-arrest for any violation after a given time period, and employment status after a given time period; when prevented from measuring client success rates, it is due to insufficient funding and lack of staff; and their programs have undergone evaluation.

Evaluation of Client Success Rates after 1 Year

For the 84.1% of respondents who indicated this is applicable to their programs:

· 38.7% do not check client success rates after 1 year

· 61.3% do check client success rates after 1 year

Evaluation of Client Success Rates after 3 Years

For the 77.9% of respondents who indicated this is applicable to their programs:

· 64.6% do not check client success rate after 3 years

· 35.4% do check client success rate after 3 years

How Programs Measure Client Success Rates[1]

For the 82.2% of respondents who indicated this is applicable to their programs:

· 10.2% do not measure client outcomes

· 20.0% provided examples of different benchmarks

· 28.1% examine contributions to community after a given time period

· 32.0% examine educational attainment

· 33.6% examine re-arrest for certain violations after a given time period

· 42.2% examine employment status after a given time period

· 66.4% examine re-arrest for any violation after a given time period

· 70.3% examine sobriety and relapses

NOTE: Please see Appendix C (Question 17) for other benchmarks used by respondents’ programs.

What Prevents Programs from Measuring Client Success Rates[2]

For the 10.2% of respondents who do not measure client outcomes (above) and who provided responses about why their programs do not measure client outcomes, their responses can be broken down as follows:

· 6.5% of responses indicate that that other issues prevent programs from measuring client success rates

· 13.0% of responses indicate that lack of time prevents programs from measuring client success rates

· 19.0% of responses indicate that lack of contact information for this population prevents programs from measuring client success rates

· 23.0% of responses indicate that lack of staff prevents programs from measuring client success rates

· 39.0% of responses indicate that lack of funding opportunities prevents programs from measuring client success rates

NOTE: Please see Appendix C (Question 18) for respondents’ explanations of why their programs do not measure client success rates.

Programs that have Undergone Evaluation

For the 65.0% of respondents who indicated this is applicable to their programs:

· 48.1% of respondents’ programs have not undergone evaluation

· 51.9% of respondents’ programs have undergone evaluation

NOTE: Please see Appendix C (Question 19) for respondents’ explanation of what has prevented their program from being evaluated (if applicable), or when and by whom their program underwent evaluation (if applicable).

[1] The percentages in these responses do not add up to 100% because respondents were given the option of selecting more than one measurement of clients’ success.

[2] The percentages in these responses do not add up to 100% because respondents were given the option of providing all feedback they felt was necessary.