Impact Program Evaluation Attempts to Determine If a Human Service

Essay

Impact program evaluation attempts to determine if a human service program actually works. In order to make a cause-and-effect statement a counterfactual has to be created that would identify what would have happened to individuals had they not participated in the program?
You are the program director of a program that works with young women to improve their parenting skills and you are charged to evaluate the program to determine if the program has made a difference in knowledge and behaviors of the women who participated in the program. Describe 1) the program hypothesis, 2) which of the two ways that you will use to compare two groups, 3) create the cause-and-effect statement and, if necessary, create a counterfactual that identifies what would happen if participants would not have participated in the program, and 4) describe the desired result that should be the outcome of the program and how you would determine if it had been achieved.