Literacy Basics - Community Literacy of Ontario

From Planning to Doing

You are probably already well on your way to conducting an outcomes-based evaluation, and you don’t even know it! You already know what your program’s inputs, activities and outputs are. For example, you know how many paid staff and volunteers you have, what your annual funding is, what services you offer and how many students are enrolled.

What you may not yet be able to clearly identify is the outcome … how your students are using their enhanced literacy skills while they are still in the program and after they leave. For example, can you confidently state that 50% of exited learners will be able to fill out an application form?

You may also not have set outcomes targets. For example, are you even working towards a goal of 50% of exited learners being able to fill out an application form? Or, to return to our earlier examples, do you reasonably expect that 75% of the students who move on to further education and training will be adequately prepared for the new learning situation. Again, a good place to start with outcomes targets is to refer back to your LSP and your annual business plan … both of those documents should include targets.

It’s always a good idea to start with what you know. When beginning an outcomes-based evaluation, it might help to use chart form. For example:

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