Does the agency have data on this?
Competencies Demonstrated by Practice Exercise 1
1 The ability to distinguish between a human service program and a human service intervention
2 The ability to collect information on one important program evaluation question for a given human service program
3 The ability to identify what a given human service agency needs to do to improve its program evaluation information
Activities for Practice Exercise 1
1 Select a human service organization and a human service program within that agency for your analysis.
2 Select one of the six statements given above to serve as the focus of your report.
3 Investigate what the selected agency does with regard to your question about program evaluation.
4 Prepare a report on what you found regarding your selected question for your selected program.
What You Will Report From Practice Exercise 1
1 The name of your agency and the name of your human service programExamples:Parker Middle School is the agency, and school social work is the program.The Harper County Department of Human Services is the agency, and child protective services is the program.Oak Hill Behavioral Health is the agency, and adult therapy services is the program.
2 A brief description of your selected program with regard to (a) basic goals and (b) servicesExamples:The social work services program at Parker Middle School has the goal of improving the ability of at-risk students to perform in school at the level of their abilities. It provides a school social worker who works with individual at-risk students and their families in a variety of ways.The child protective services program of Harper County Department of Human Services has the goal of preventing child abuse and neglect. It provides an array of social work services including investigation of complaints of child neglect and abuse, provision of case management services to client families, and referral of clients to needed services.The adult mental health program of Oak Hill Behavioral Health provides psychotherapy to adults for the purpose of improving their mental health and promoting their self-sufficiency.
3 The question you have selected for your analysis
4 What you found with regard to your question
5 What you would recommend for the agency to improve its program evaluation information
Practice Exercise 2: Evaluating an Intervention
You will select a group of clients with a common target behavior and answer a set of questions to report on some selected information that would guide the evaluation of a human service intervention designed to address this target behavior.
Competencies Demonstrated by Practice Exercise 2
1 The ability to identify a target behavior that is treated by a given intervention that will be evaluated
2 The ability to identify a human service intervention that will be evaluated with regard to outcomes for the target behavior that is being treated
3 The ability to identify an outcome objective that fits the evaluation of a given intervention for a given target behavior
4 The ability to identify a piece of data that would be relevant to a given outcome objective in the evaluation of a given human service intervention
Activities for Practice Exercise 2
1 Identify a human service intervention (service) that you would like to evaluate. Be prepared to describe the activities of this intervention.Examples: (a) A support group for victims of rape, (b) tutoring services for at-risk middle school students, and (c) therapy for persons who are depressed.
2 Identify the target behavior that is addressed by the above human service intervention.Examples: (a) Feelings of social support, (b) grades in school, and (c) depression.
3 Identify an outcome objective for the above intervention with regard to the above target behavior.Examples: (a) To enhance feelings of social support, (b) to improve grades in school, and (c) to reduce depression.
4 Identify a piece of data (information) that could be used to evaluate whether the above intervention has been effective with regard to the achievement of the above outcome objective.Examples: (a) Improvement in scores on a social support scale from the beginning of the service period to the end, (b) grades in school for the grade term of the period of the service compared with the grades in school for the previous grade term, and (c) improvement in scores on a scale of depression taken both before and after the therapy was given.
What You Will Report From Practice Exercise 2
1 A brief description of your selected human service intervention
2 A brief description of your selected target behavior
3 The outcome objective that should be evaluated
4 The piece of data that could be used to measure the effectiveness of the selected intervention with regard to the selected target behavior
Chapter Review
Chapter Key Learnings
1 Human service research can be categorized in several ways. Three of these ways that were examined in this chapter were purpose, scope, and basic approach to measurement.
2 Human service research can be classified with regard to purpose. One purpose is description, where precise measurement is critical. Another purpose is explanation, where two or more variables are measured and compared to test whether one explains the other. A third purpose is evaluation, where client outcome is measured. A final purpose is exploration, which makes good use of qualitative measurement because it is an examination of a phenomenon that is not well known.
3 A manner of characterizing evaluative research is its scope. This type of research can be classified as program evaluation or intervention evaluation. Program evaluation is broader in scope and may include several intervention evaluations; the latter is given greater emphasis in this book.
4 The general type of measurement is a third way to characterize human service research. When you measure variables in a quantitative manner, you will give each study subject either a category to fit into or a number that indicates the numerical value it represents on a concept to be measured. When you measure variables in a qualitative way, you ask the study subjects to give you words to analyze.
5 When you engage in program evaluations, you may ask questions such as the following: (a) Were appropriate clients offered service? (b) Were good standards of service implemented? (c) Did the clients achieve the objectives of the service?
6 The
