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November 12, 2015 Course Syllabus for Learning From Practice: Evaluation and Improvement Science Harvard Family Research Project Download a PDF of this publication (45 kb)

FINE Newsletter, Volume VII, Issue 4
Issue Topic: Evaluation and Improvement Science in Action

Tips and Tools

How do we know if a program is being implemented in ways that produce desired results? How can individuals and organizations engage in continuous improvement? How can evaluators support organizations in building evaluation capacity?

Candice Bocala’s course at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Learning From Practice: Evaluation and Improvement Science, explores these and related questions. The course introduces students to theories and frameworks of improvement science and formative program evaluation.

Bocala designed the course to include a field experience for students with a key component of developing a formative evaluation proposal with a partner organization. By working with their partner organization, students explore a variety of evaluation approaches and develop practical skills, such as co-developing logic models, generating relevant evaluation questions, and offering recommendations for next steps in the evaluation process.

Explore the course syllabus (PDF) and learn more about the content and design of Bocala’s course. 

You may also be interested in reading Insights From Teaching a Graduate Evaluation and Improvement Science Course.

The infographic below highlights the core evaluation approaches, guiding questions, and students’ learning milestones in Bocala’s course.

This resource is part of the November FINE Newsletter. The FINE Newsletter shares the newest and best family engagement research and resources from Harvard Family Research Project and other field leaders. To access the archives of past issues, please visit www.hfrp.org/FINENewsletter.