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Poster Reception #1

Extension Education Evaluation

Session: Poster Reception #1

52 - Using a Regional Model to Strengthen the Evaluation Practices of Extension Educators and Evaluation Specialists in the Western United States

Stream: Education and Learning

Wednesday, October 23, 2024
5:30 PM - 7:00 PM PST
Abstract Information: There is a growing expectation among Extension leadership and funding agencies to examine and report on the long-term outcomes and impacts of extension programs. While there is slow progress towards this expectation, a number of states and territories still primarily collect and report outputs data (e.g. number of educational materials developed and distributed, number of people attending training programs, etc.) as evidence for impact of their extension programs. The factors contributing to the slow pace of transition include: (1) limited evaluation skills among extension professionals, (2) lack of evaluation specialists or evaluation units in some states and territories dedicated to the evaluation capacity building (ECB) of extension educators, (3) unfamiliarity of extension professionals with evaluation and importance of rigorous evaluation, and (4) minimal to no incentives for conducting rigorous evaluation. The situation is exacerbated by budget cuts to Extension, impacting the allocation of resources to ECB. In response, the Extension Directors of the western region created a regional team in 2018, which was charged with leveraging resources to build the evaluation capacity of extension professionals in the region. The team adapted Preskill and Boyle’s ECB Model and a participatory approach to design their leadership, plans of work, and strategies. The team currently has representatives from 13 of the 16 member states and territories in the region. Given the different approaches to ECB adopted by different universities, this regional evaluation team is composed of representatives with diverse roles, including evaluation specialists with dedicated time for ECB of extension professionals, research specialists with backgrounds in social science, county extension educators with background or responsibilities in reporting, and a media specialist. Within the domain of program development and evaluation, each team member brings unique skills in the areas of needs assessment, outcomes measurement methods, program logic models, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, impact assessment, and storytelling. This collaborative professional network thus increases each individual representative’s resources for ECB in their home state. Our approach could serve as a model for other Extension regions, as well as for other similar national or regional program networks. During this roundtable, we will provide an overview of the team’s leadership structure and share the outputs created and outcomes achieved since the group's inception six years ago. We will also share how working on this team has helped us leverage complementary expertise and enhanced our own evaluation competencies through mutual learning opportunities. Current team members have diverse evaluation backgrounds, responsibilities and history with the team. Session participants will learn how this diversity influences the regional ECB of extension professionals. Following our presentation, we will facilitate a discussion using three guiding questions, each led by team members with different evaluation background and tenure with the team. We anticipate generating a lively discussion on participants’ perspectives of our model for ECB and peer support, the adaptability of our model to their contexts, and the potential for collaborations in ECB and research.