This chapter focuses on the collection of descriptive information concerning the educational, economic, and employment environment of the community in which the program is located. These data provide a context against which program outcomes may be measured.
Information on educational, economic, and employment characteristics of the community will most often be collected as part of a needs assessment which is generally conducted prior to planning a project. In fact, the needs assessment results are often included as a part of a program's grant proposal or application for funding. Thus, the needs assessment data may satisfy the requirements of this component of the evaluation.
In focusing on the desired information for this aspect of the evaluation, the project director and evaluator should decide on the purposes that information on the environment of the program may play in the overall evaluation plan. This will define the scope of this part of the evaluation. From this, the relevant evaluation questions may be developed.
An illustrative set of questions relating to the program environment is provided in Exhibit 2.The final set of questions should be defined and developed by the project director and evaluator so that they meet the needs of their local program.
After the questions are specified, the evaluator should identify the specific variables which are applicable to the questions, and the possible sources of data which may be used to answer the questions. Examples of variables and data sources are also shown in Exhibit 2. Following this, a strategy for data collection and the data collection instruments themselves need to be developed. Relevant data may be available from such agencies as the local school system, the local economic development agency, local or state employment department, and Chamber of Commerce.
The findings which result from this part of the evaluation will eventually help explain the results of the outcome evaluation. For example, if project goals concerning job placement are not achieved, it may be because the program is providing vocational training for occupations which are inappropriate for the present economic environment of the local community (no jobs are available). Thus, the evaluation results can help the project director make programming decisions to rectify the situation.
| Education Questions | Variables | Possible Data Sources | |
| 1. | What are the general characteristics of the community and target population served by the program? | Total Population; number of individuals in target population, demographics of the target population. | Published Census Reports |
| 2. | What are the employment and economic characteristics of the community in which the program is located? | Unemployment rate; mean family income of general population and target population. | Local Labor Department |
| 3. | How many members of the target population in the community need employment and related services? | Number of adults seeking employment; number of adults unemployed; number of adults underemployed. | Local Labor Department |
| 4. | How many adults need literacy and/or vocational training? | Number of adults needing training. | Local Labor Department |
| 5. | What kinds of jobs are available in the community for which the program could train adults? | Jobs available in community. | Local Labor Department |
| 6. | Which areas of vocational training are most needed in the community? | Types of jobs available in community. | Local Labor Department |
V. Program Participants