Impact program evaluation attempts to determine if a human service program actually works. In order to make a cause-and-effect statement a counterfactual has to be created that would identify what would have happened to individuals had they not participated in the program? You are the program director of a program that works with young women to improve their parenting skills and you are charged to evaluate the program to determine if the program has made a difference in knowledge and behaviors of the women who participated in the program. Describe 1) the program hypothesis, 2) which of the two ways that you will use to compare two groups, 3) create the cause-and-effect statement and, if necessary, create a counterfactual that identifies what would happen if participants would not have

Question

participated in the program, and 4) describe the desired result that should be the outcome of the program and how you would determine if it had been achieved.

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ans: 1 & 2) if a parenting improvement program is implemented, then the group of young women will improve in their knowledge of and behavior following participation in the program 3) counterfactual: a group of young women do not participate in a parenting improvement program which is implemented to improve the knowledge of and behaviors of parenting, the desired improvement will not happen, and testing scores will remain the same.