Program Evaluation Guide: Tides Family Services Case
A guide for students writing a program evaluation design paper. Includes a full APA 7 sample on the Tides Family Services (pre-post design) prompt.
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Program Evaluation Assignment Guide
You have an assignment to design a program evaluation for Tides Family Services. You need to define an outcome, choose an evaluation design, discuss its limitations, and outline a sampling strategy. This is a common task in social work, public health, and sociology courses.
This task requires you to think like a researcher. You must apply concepts like “quasi-experimental design” and “threats to validity” to a real-world scenario. Your professor wants to see if you can move from a vague goal (“improved family functioning”) to a measurable, operationalized outcome (“linkage to community resources”).
This guide provides an overview of the key concepts. More importantly, it includes a complete sample answer formatted in APA 7 style, based on the exact prompt. We then break down *why* that sample paper works, giving you the tools to write your own.
Key Concepts in Program Evaluation
To write your paper, you first need to understand the terms. According to the CDC’s Program Evaluation page, this is a systematic way to judge a program’s effectiveness and make decisions (CDC, 2024). Your prompt asks you to design this process.
1. Outcomes (Intermediate vs. Long-Term)
Your prompt specifies an intermediate outcome. This is a crucial distinction.
- Long-Term Outcome: The ultimate goal of the program (e.g., “reduced youth recidivism” or “improved long-term family stability”). These are hard and slow to measure.
- Intermediate Outcome: The necessary “stepping stone” to the long-term goal. The prompt defines this for you: “improved linkage to community support resources.” This is measurable and directly tied to the program’s activities.
The concept of “service linkage” is a core part of community-based social science. It measures a family’s integration into a sustainable support network, a key predictor of success after the program ends (Willis & Mulfinger, 2017).
2. Evaluation Design: Pre-/Post-Test
The prompt specifies a self-controlled pre-/post-design. This is a type of quasi-experimental design.
- What it is: You measure the outcome (linkage to resources) at intake (Pre-Test). Then, the program (the intervention) happens. Finally, you measure the same outcome in the same people at discharge (Post-Test).
- Why use it: It is practical. As the prompt notes, Tides already collects this data, so it is feasible. It is also effective at showing *that* a change occurred in the participants.
- The Weakness: This design is weak in internal validity. It cannot prove that the program caused the change. This brings us to the main limitation.
3. Limitations: Threats to Validity
Your prompt correctly identifies the main limitation: “history effects.” This is a key term in research methodology.
- Definition: A “history effect” is any external event that happens between the pre-test and post-test that could influence the outcome.
- Example (from prompt): A new community mental health clinic opens. Families get “linked” to this new resource, and the post-test scores go up. The program *looks* successful, but the *real* cause of the change was the new clinic (an external event), not the program itself.
- Other Limitations: You could also mention “maturation” (families might have improved on their own over time) or “testing effects” (the intake assessment might have made them start thinking about resources).
For a detailed breakdown of these designs and their limitations, see recent academic reviews on quasi-experimental designs in research (Noel et al., 2024).
4. Sampling Strategy
The prompt asks for a sampling strategy and suggests including “all families who participate.” This is a census sample (or “total population sampling”) of the program’s participants. You are not “sampling” in the traditional sense; you are attempting to include everyone. This is a strong strategy for internal program evaluation because it provides a complete picture of who the program serves, rather than a random subset.
Full Sample Answer: Tides Family Services Evaluation Design
Here is a complete sample paper written in APA 7 style. It directly answers the prompt using the provided text as its foundation, expanded into a full narrative. This is the “contextual border” that shows you *how* to write your paper.
Program Evaluation Design: Tides Family Services
Outcome Being Evaluated
An intermediate outcome for Tides Family Services is the improved linkage to community support resources for youth and families at program discharge. This outcome is operationalized as the proportion of families who, upon closing services, are actively connected to at least one community-based support resource (e.g., mental health services, educational programs, or social services) that addresses their identified needs. This is a key intermediate step toward the long-term goal of improved family functioning and resilience.
Evaluation Design
The most appropriate method to evaluate this outcome is a self-controlled pre-/post-design. This is a quasi-experimental design that compares each participant’s connection to community support resources at intake (pre-test) and again at discharge (post-test). This design is a logical choice for two primary reasons. First, it allows researchers to measure change over time for each family, with each participant serving as their own baseline control (Pre-Post Study, n.d.). Second, this approach is practical. Tides Family Services already gathers data on family needs and service connections during intake and discharge. Using this existing data collection process makes the evaluation feasible without adding significant burden to staff or families.
Limitations of the Design
While the pre-/post-test design is practical, it has significant limitations, most notably its vulnerability to threats to internal validity. A key limitation is “history effects” (Miller et al., 2020). History, in this context, refers to any external event that occurs between the pre-test and post-test that could influence the outcome. For example, if a new community mental health clinic opens or a school starts a new after-school program during the evaluation period, families may be more likely to connect to these services regardless of their participation in the Outreach and Tracking program. This external event makes it difficult to attribute the observed improvements solely to the intervention. As Bykov et al. (2019) note in their analysis of self-controlled designs, this model cannot definitively establish causation, only correlation over time. Another potential limitation is maturation, the possibility that families would have naturally found resources on their own given enough time, regardless of the intervention.
Sampling Strategy
The sampling strategy for this evaluation will be a census of all program participants. The sample will include all families who are enrolled in the Outreach and Tracking program and who complete both the intake assessment and the discharge assessment. This total population sampling approach is appropriate because it provides a complete and accurate picture of the program’s real-world participants, rather than a random subset. This method enhances the generalizability of the findings to the program’s own population and captures the full diversity of families served, including those with varying levels of risk, need, and engagement. Families who drop out before completing the discharge assessment will be excluded from the final analysis of this specific outcome.
References
Bykov, K., Franklin, J. M., Li, H., & Gagne, J. J. (2019). Comparison of self-controlled designs for evaluating outcomes of drug–drug interactions. *Epidemiology*, *30*(6), 861–866. https://doi.org/10.1097/ede.0000000000001087
Miller, C. J., Smith, S. N., & Pugatch, M. (2020). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs in implementation research. *Psychiatry Research*, *283*(112452). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2019.06.027
Pre-Post Study: Definition, Advantages, and Drawbacks. (n.d.). *Www.withpower.com*. https://www.withpower.com/guides/pre-post-study
Expert Breakdown: How to Write Your Evaluation Paper
The sample paper above is a perfect, concise answer to the prompt. It’s an “A” paper. Here is why it works.
1. It Directly Answers the Prompt
The paper is structured with headings that mirror the prompt’s questions (“Evaluation Design,” “Limitations,” “Sampling Strategy”). This makes it easy for your professor to grade and shows you are following instructions.
2. It Defines and Operationalizes
The first section clearly defines the “intermediate outcome.” It properly “operationalizes” the vague goal of “improved functioning” into a measurable, specific metric: “the proportion of families… connected to at least one resource.” This is the most important skill in program evaluation.
3. It Shows Critical Thinking (Limitations)
The strongest part of the sample is the “Limitations” section. It doesn’t just say the design is weak. It uses the correct academic term (“history effects”) and provides a specific, relevant example (a new clinic opening). This demonstrates a deep understanding of research methodology.
4. It Uses Scholarly Sources Correctly
The paper integrates all three provided sources. It uses (Pre-Post Study, n.d.) to define the design, (Miller et al., 2020) to define history effects, and (Bykov et al., 2019) to support the critique. This shows you are grounding your analysis in academic literature.
How Our Experts Can Help You
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Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a pre-/post-test evaluation design?
A: A pre-/post-test design is a type of quasi-experimental study that measures an outcome in a single group of participants before an intervention (the ‘pre-test’) and again after the intervention (the ‘post-test’). The goal is to see if there was a change in the outcome. It is also called a ‘self-controlled’ design because each participant acts as their own control.
Q: What is the ‘history effect’ limitation?
A: A ‘history effect’ is a threat to the internal validity of an evaluation. It refers to any external event that occurs between the pre-test and post-test (other than the intervention) that could influence the outcome. For example, if a new community mental health clinic opens, it might be this new clinic, and not the ‘Tides’ program, that caused an increase in families’ linkage to resources.
Q: What does ‘operationalize an outcome’ mean?
A: To ‘operationalize’ an outcome means to define a vague concept in a way that is specific, measurable, and observable. The prompt operationalizes the vague outcome ‘improved family functioning’ into the specific, measurable outcome: ‘the proportion of families who… are actively connected to at least one community-based support resource.’
Q: What is the difference between an intermediate and a long-term outcome?
A: An intermediate outcome is a change that is expected to happen soon after the program and is a step towards a larger goal (e.g., ‘improved linkage to resources’). A long-term outcome is the ultimate, larger goal of the program (e.g., ‘reduced youth recidivism’ or ‘improved long-term family stability’).
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