Deck 10: Conducting Program Evaluations

Question 1

According to the text, what is the benefit of program evaluations for human service organizations?

A) improving the likelihood that qualified social workers will be employed and salaries will be raised
B) providing ideas for improving services and accountability
C) improving adherence to quality considerations in the improvement of services
D) raising the standards for hiring people in administrative positions

Answer 1

providing ideas for improving services and accountability

Question 2

What is a program?

A) an organized set of activities designed to achieve a particular goal or a set of objectives
B) a measured amount of progress toward the achievement of a client benefit
C) a long-range statement of client benefit
D) the description of the clients being served by a set of services that are being studied

Answer 2

an organized set of activities designed to achieve a particular goal or a set of objectives

Question 3

Of the following, which would be the best source of evidence to guide the design of programs?

A) the traditional literature review of evidence on the treatment of the target behavior of the program
B) a single article that describes various programs that serve the relevant target population
C) a meta-analysis of evidence in regard to the treatment of the target behavior of the program
D) a systematic review of evidence in regard to the treatment of the target behavior of the program

Answer 3

a systematic review of evidence in regard to the treatment of the target behavior of the program

Question 4

A program that ______ is considered a good program, according to the text.

A) operates in a good service culture
B) differentiates more than other agencies in salary between those in lower and higher positions in the organization
C) provides much higher power to those at the top of the agency than the next level
D) focuses on standards of service more so than client outcome

Question 5

A program can be distinguished from an intervention in that a program is ______.

A) more narrow in scope than the intervention so that an intervention will often have several programs within it
B) be focused only on client outcome, whereas the intervention will often be focused on other aspects of success like efficiency and quality
C) more broad in scope and will usually contain more than one intervention
D) focused on the agency budget

Question 6

A program evaluation is an effort to do which of the following?

A) evaluate the top administrators of the human service agency so as to improve organizational functioning
B) evaluate success through retroactive planning
C) apply the principles of scientific inquiry to program decision-making
D) apply the principles of cherry-picking to organizational decision-making

Question 7

Which of the following is a source of information generated by program evaluations?

A) client outcomes of the program
B) relevance of the program to chance
C) ability of the program to appeal to state laws
D) linearity of the program

Question 8

Among the most important characteristics of good human service programs is a clear ______

A) protocol for referral
B) identity
C) list of personnel policies
D) list of agency intake procedures

Question 9

The cost per unit of service would be used in an evaluation of service ______.

A) effectiveness
B) quality
C) efficiency
D) outcome

Question 10

Which of the following would be the most important piece of information in the assessment of need?

A) the cost per unit of service
B) the number of clients whose conditions have improved
C) the number of people on the program's waiting list for service
D) the extent that the program employs personnel with the needed job qualifications

Question 11

Nominal group technique (NGT) is ______.

A) a group technique for assigning money to various programs and interventions in a human service organization
B) a structured group method of decision that is designed to maximize participation among a small group of key informants
C) a method of assuring that good quality services are provided by a human service program through the examination of standards of service
D) a group technique that is focused on the effectiveness of client outcome for interventions rather than for programs

Question 12

Nominal group technique (NGT) is most helpful for the evaluation of ______.

A) service efficiency
B) client outcome
C) service process
D) service need

Question 13

The evaluation of service process differs from the evaluation of input or outcome in that service process will often include the examination of ______

A) client need
B) client recovery
C) standards of service delivered
D) achievement of the long-term goals of the program

Question 14

Which of the following information would fit into the evaluation of service efficiency?

A) the cost per therapy session delivered
B) the rate of recovery of the clients
C) the extent that service staff hold the job credentials that are required
D) the extent that service is being delivered to low-income clients

Question 15

Which of the following information would fit into the evaluation of client outcome?

A) the extent that former clients, in a client satisfaction survey, report that they would recommend this agency to others in need
B) the extent that clients have achieved the objectives of the program such as reduced depression and improved employment status
C) the extent that the cost per unit of service is lower than that of other organizations that are delivering similar service
D) the extent that services are being delivered to those in the primary target population

Question 16

The key disadvantage of client satisfaction surveys as a measure of success for the human service program is that ______.

A) they tend to report only the complaints of clients who were not satisfied, so you do not know what the satisfied clients believe
B) they are not valued at all by the community or by funding sources
C) they are recommended for the evaluation of human service interventions but not for human service programs by the Federal Government
D) the results of client satisfaction surveys are rather uniformly positive even though studies measuring client outcome are not uniformly positive

Question 17

On client satisfaction surveys, open-ended questions are likely to generate ______.

A) only negative comments
B) only positive comments
C) both positive and negative comments
D) hardly any comments at all

Question 18

For the human service program, the logic model is a means of illustrating the connections between ______.

A) assumptions, resources, activities, and outcomes
B) client satisfaction and client outcome
C) efficiency, quality, and standards
D) normality, consequences, and participation

Question 19

In the logic model, the output is measured as ______.

A) numbers of clients who were rehabilitated
B) proportions of clients satisfied at different levels
C) units of service (e.g., a client therapy session delivered)
D) costs of program elements

Question 20

In program evaluation, a program that _______ failed to demonstrate treatment fidelity.

A) failed to achieve a high degree of client rehabilitation
B) wasn't implemented according to the proper design of the program
C) failed to achieve a level of client satisfaction that was comparable with other organizations' programs
D) exceeded the budget

Question 21

The size of your study sample has no influence upon whether your data will be found to be statistically significant.

Question 22

A means of improving treatment fidelity is effective training of staff.

Question 23

Program evaluation is designed to cherry-pick information in such a way as to make the program look better than it is.

Question 24

Among the ways that programs may be evaluated is in regard to client need, service output, service process, and client outcome.

Question 25

Service efficiency refers to the extent that clients have become rehabilitated in accordance with program goals.

Question 26

The services of the human service organization may be improved from what is learned from various aspects of program evaluations.

Question 27

The systematic review is not as good as the meta-analysis in the portrayal of evidence for the human service program or intervention.

Question 28

One of the characteristics of a good human service program is stable funding.

Question 29

One of the sources for finding evidence for human service programs and interventions is the Campbell Collaboration.

Question 30

One of the steps in the Nominal Group Technique is the review of the literature in regard to the theme of the group discussion.

Question 31

One of the characteristics of a good human service program is an organizational culture that focuses on the client. Identify two additional characteristics of a good human service organization and briefly explain how a familiar human service organization would demonstrate one of these characteristics.

Question 32

Discuss (a) what treatment fidelity means, and (b) how treatment fidelity is illustrated in a familiar program.

Question 33

Explain the concept of efficiency as a criterion for evaluating a human service program. Identify a specific human service program and discuss how it may be evaluated in regard to efficiency. What specific data would be collected?

Question 34

Identify what is meant by the concept of service standard. Identify a specific human service program and two service standards that are appropriate for its evaluation.

Question 35

Identify how a human service organization could evaluate client outcome. What is the human service program, the treatment objective to be evaluated, and the data that would be collected in order to evaluate its achievement?