Program Evaluation & Consultation Flashcards

An evaluator wants to determine whether gains observed in a school intervention are due to the program or to students naturally maturing over time. The threat to internal validity being controlled for is:

Answer: Maturation

Maturation refers to changes in participants over time that occur regardless of the intervention, threatening the ability to attribute outcomes to the program.

A psychologist is asked to help an agency develop a new trauma-informed care training program. Before designing the program, the psychologist should conduct a:

Answer: Formative needs assessment

A formative needs assessment identifies gaps between current and desired staff competencies before program development begins.

A key distinction between consultation and supervision is that consultation:

Answer: Is voluntary and non-hierarchical with the consultee retaining autonomy

Unlike supervision, consultation is non-hierarchical and voluntary; the consultee retains full professional responsibility for decisions made.

A school district evaluates a bullying prevention program using pre- and post-surveys but has no control group. The greatest limitation of this design is:

Answer: Inability to rule out alternative explanations for change

Without a control group, changes observed may reflect history, maturation, or other events rather than the intervention itself.

Program evaluation standards developed by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation emphasize four qualities. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

Answer: Brevity

The Joint Committee's four program evaluation standards are Utility, Feasibility, Propriety, and Accuracy—brevity is not among them.

A psychologist providing consultation to a community mental health center recommends a specific evidence-based group therapy protocol. Six months later, the center reports low adoption. The MOST likely barrier is:

Answer: Poor fit between the protocol and organizational culture or capacity

Recommendations that do not account for an organization's culture, resources, and capacity frequently fail at the implementation stage despite strong evidence bases.

When an evaluator shares preliminary findings with program staff to check for accuracy and plausibility, this process is called:

Answer: Member checking

Member checking involves sharing findings or interpretations with participants or stakeholders to verify that conclusions accurately reflect their experiences and context.