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Supporting Program Performance Evaluation Plans
The Program Performance Evaluation (PPE) was a component of the PDG B-5 funding opportunity awarded to states. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) jointly with the Department of Education (ED) (the Departments) requested grantees develop a plan for conducting PPEs that will allow them to monitor progress toward their state’s early care and education plan and program goals and objectives and use the resulting information to inform continuous quality improvement. This initial guidance attached provides an introduction to PPE and recommendations for grantees to consider as they develop their individualized PPE plans. Grantees should tailor their PPE plans and activities according to what is reasonable and feasible for their program. Plan or activity components’ application and appropriateness depend on grantees’ goals, objectives and PPE readiness.
These resources were created to support PDG B-5 grantees in their work establishing and carrying out the Program Performance Evaluation:
Program Performance Evaluation Initial and Secondary Guidance
All grantees were required to create a Program Performance Evaluation Plan (PPEP) as part of their initial PDG B-5 grants with the intent that Grantees would continue to use and update their PPEPs throughout their grant period and in the future. This webinar will increase Grantee knowledge and capacity for updating and using their PPEPs for continuous evaluation of their birth through five mixed delivery options within their early childhood care and education system.
This webinar provides an overview of some of the key components of the PDG B-5 Program Performance Evaluation Plan (PPEP).
This brief is designed to assist states with developing or revising their Program Performance Evaluation Plans. It provides guidance and recommendations on showing the state’s logic behind the state’s strategic plan, making decisions about measurement, and setting priorities to make the evaluation manageable.
Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B-5) initial grantees are required to develop program performance evaluation (PPE) plans that detail how they will self-examine the implementation, outputs and outcomes of their PDG B-5 grant activities. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) intends for PDG B-5 grantees to use PPE to support implementation of PDG B-5 strategic plans and data based decision-making while facilitating collaboration and coordination among existing early childhood programs in a mixed delivery system (MDS). Grantees can use PPE to assess progress toward pre-established goals and objectives identified in their strategic plans, identify opportunities for continuous quality improvement and share lessons learned. This document serves as ACF’s initial PPE guidance document and includes recommendations grantees can consider as they create their PPE plan. A second, more detailed PPE guidance document is forthcoming.
Additional Resources
Type of product: guidebook
Brief description: This resource is an 84-page guidebook published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for use by program managers and evaluators. It contains guidance that can facilitate capacity building on a range of evaluation topics. The guidebook includes many tools and resources that users are encouraged to adapt to meet their program’s evaluation needs.
How Grantee would use product to support grant activities: A PDG B-5 Grantee can use this resource to guide the planning, design, implementation, and analysis/reporting of an evaluation study. Although the title is focused on disease prevention/health promotion, this resource can be used by PDG B-5 Grantee because it includes many practical tip sheets, worksheets, and other guidance that can be used to support evaluation (see Part II, starting on page 45).
Level: introductory
Type of product: guidebook
Brief description: This resource is a 4-page guidebook that provides specific, detailed information about how to align evaluation questions to metrics, something most logic model guides do not provide. The document is organized into a series of steps that are required to collect high-quality data needed to evaluate implementation and outcomes. This guidebook acknowledges that how goals and indicators are determined and data are collected and analyzed depend on a number of factors, including the context and purpose of the data collection, the size of the data collection, and the scope of the resources of the organization. For each step in the data collection and evaluation process, it is also important to consider the needs and potential contributions of various stakeholders along with the strategies for maximizing their involvement.
How Grantee would use product to support grant activities: A PDG B-5 Grantee can use this guide to develop evaluation plans and to move from a generic logic model to the identification of specific indicators and data sources that are appropriate to the evaluation questions. It lays out the key steps in a program performance evaluation and provides a basic overview on how to get started.
Level: introductory
Type of product: tip sheets
Brief description: This resource is a set of 6 tip sheets with each tip sheet providing concise guidance on how to evaluate the implementation of evidence-based practices from characteristics of a high-quality measurement tool to summarizing data for decision-making. These tip sheets can be downloaded as PDFs individually, or as a set.
How Grantee would use product to support grant activities: A PDG B-5 Grantee can use these tip sheets to design and implement their state program performance evaluation, including how to plan an evaluation design, identify appropriate metrics and indicators, and make decisions about how to gauge success. These tip sheets will be especially relevant for states that are developing and implementing program improvement strategies involving evidence-based practices.
Level: intermediate
Type of product: guidebook
Brief description: This resource is a 22-page guidebook that is one in a series of Program Evaluation Guides developed by the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (DHDSP) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to assist in evaluating heart disease and stroke prevention activities. This guidebook focuses on ensuring evaluation use and addresses the following topics: key considerations for effectively reporting evaluation findings; essential elements for evaluation reporting; importance of dissemination; and tools and resources. It includes a practical checklist that may be helpful to consider when reporting findings (page 17).
How Grantee would use product to support grant activities: A PDG B-5 Grantee can use this resource in developing a plan for using and sharing findings from its program performance evaluation. It also includes considerations for engaging stakeholders and applying findings to inform improvement efforts.
Level: introductory
