Deck 7: Evaluating Outcomes

Question 1

Program or policy evaluation should be designed after implementation has occurred.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

A "control group" consisting of individuals not exposed to an intervention is required for an evaluator to determine the impact of an intervention on program participants.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

In impact assessments, the focus is on improving outcomes over time.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Creating comparison groups can minimize the effects of confounding factors.

Question 5

The pre-post design with multiple pretests is the most difficult and expensive to conduct.

Question 6

Meta-analysis is a method for creating comparison groups.

Question 7

Time series analysis examines the rate of some phenomenon at multiple points in time before an innovation and then compares those data to the same rate information for a period of time following implementation.

Question 8

The Evaluation of Prison-Based Therapeutic Community Drug Treatment Programs in Pennsylvania used matched comparison groups at five prisons to test the impact of the Therapeutic Community approach.

Question 9

The manner in which evaluation results are communicated can affect their utilization.

Question 10

The most common type of evaluation is:

A) impact assessment
B) continuous evaluation
C) efficiency analysis
D) meta-analysis
E) none of the above

Question 11

________________ are often limited because they give a snapshot of outcomes at a given point in time.

A) impact assessments
B) continuous evaluations
C) efficiency analyses
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 12

A bathroom scale that consistently evaluates a weight that is ten pounds below a person's actual weight is having problems with:

A) validity
B) reliability
C) efficiency
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 13

Programs that accept only low-risk, low-needs clients have samples that suffer from:

A) history effects
B) biased attrition
C) biased selection
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 14

The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment has been criticized for:

A) history effects
B) biased attrition
C) biased selection
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 15

Matched control groups are often used to reduce the likelihood of:

A) random assignment
B) retention
C) confounding effects
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 16

The most ideal evaluation design is:

A) longitudinal design with treatment and control groups
B) pre-post design with multiple pretests
C) pre-post design with a control group
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 17

School studies often use a:

A) cohort design
B) pre-post design with multiple pretests
C) pre-post design with a control group
D) all of the above
E) none of the above