CPE Program Planning & Design 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A program evaluator is reviewing a youth job-training initiative that serves three distinct age cohorts. Which planning approach best ensures each cohort's needs are addressed without duplicating resources?
- Deliver identical curriculum to all cohorts to ensure equity
- Use a differentiated program design with shared infrastructure and tailored components per cohort (Correct answer)
- Plan separate, fully independent programs for each cohort
- Focus resources exclusively on the cohort with the highest need
Correct answer: Use a differentiated program design with shared infrastructure and tailored components per cohort
A differentiated design shares common infrastructure while tailoring interventions to each cohort's developmental and skill needs, optimizing both equity and efficiency.
Question 2: When conducting a community needs assessment prior to program design, which data source provides the most valid evidence of unmet need?
- Anecdotal reports from program staff
- Census data combined with local service utilization records (Correct answer)
- Feedback from a single focus group of potential participants
- National averages for the target population
Correct answer: Census data combined with local service utilization records
Triangulating census demographics with local service utilization records surfaces gaps between population need and actual service delivery more reliably than single sources.
Question 3: A logic model's 'activities' box should most directly correspond to which other element?
- Long-term outcomes
- Inputs (Correct answer)
- Assumptions
- Short-term outcomes
Correct answer: Inputs
Activities are the direct conversion of inputs (staff, funding, materials) into program services, making inputs their most direct antecedent in the logic model.
Question 4: Which design feature most strengthens a program's ability to demonstrate causal attribution during evaluation?
- Large participant enrollment numbers
- A randomized control group (Correct answer)
- Multi-year implementation
- High staff-to-participant ratios
Correct answer: A randomized control group
Random assignment to treatment and control conditions is the gold standard for isolating the program's causal effect from confounding variables.
Question 5: A program planner wants to build in fidelity checks during implementation. This is best described as part of which planning phase?
- Outcome mapping
- Process evaluation planning (Correct answer)
- Impact assessment
- Stakeholder dissemination
Correct answer: Process evaluation planning
Fidelity monitoring is a core component of process evaluation, ensuring the program is delivered as designed before assessing outcomes.
Question 6: An evaluator discovers that a program's stated goal is 'to improve community health' with no further specification. What is the primary planning problem this represents?
- Insufficient funding allocation
- Lack of SMART objectives (Correct answer)
- Inadequate stakeholder engagement
- Poor staff training protocols
Correct answer: Lack of SMART objectives
Without Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound objectives, the program cannot be reliably evaluated or managed toward a defined outcome.
Question 7: When selecting evidence-based interventions (EBIs) for a new program, a planner should FIRST assess which of the following?
- Whether the EBI has been tested with populations similar to the target community (Correct answer)
- The cost of the EBI relative to other options
- Whether local staff prefer the EBI's model
- How long the EBI has been in existence
Correct answer: Whether the EBI has been tested with populations similar to the target community
Population fit—whether the EBI's evidence base includes demographically or contextually similar groups—is the prerequisite for valid adaptation and effective outcomes.
CPE Program Planning & Design 2
A program evaluator is reviewing a youth job-training initiative that serves three distinct age cohorts.
Which planning approach best ensures each cohort's needs are addressed without duplicating resources?