OK, I can not tell a lie. Reading the Program Evaluation Standards over the last two weeks has been tough. I am super interested in learning about evaluation-being able to effectively evaluate the things around me will help me make better more informed decisions as an educator and a citizen: what’s not to like (and no wonder it’s at the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy!)? I am also pretty good at sucking it up and powering through the task at hand, but for some reason, this was a tough text to get through! So why oh why did I struggle so much with the reading? I think that it must have been that I was reading these standards without a context for understanding.
When I was getting my ed certificate in undergrad, we were constantly asked to construct a phantom classroom for various assignments. This was impossible for me because sure, I could, in my head, think of a mixed ability, mixed socio-economic, mixed race class in a suburban public high school. But I wasn’t fooling anybody–how would I know what that was really like? How could I make up what my students would be like without ever having students? How would I know whether or not we could get 90 copies of The Sandman by Neil Gaiman until I faced my administration and asked for money? How would I know if we lived near a cemetery, or a library, or if we could even take walking field trips until I got a job and could ask? How would I know any of this until I got into an actual classroom?
Applying the reading, then, to the case study was like getting my first teaching job. All of a sudden, case study in hand, these standards that I struggled through made perfect sense in their complexity and detail. I perused the standards again, this time with a goal in mind and could better understand the importance of the standards as well as see their interrelatedness. I was able to breeze through these once elusive standards. The lists of criteria and common errors were invaluable to my understanding, and the case studies were often equally as helpful. And it wasn’t only the standards that made sense. I was able to better understand the remarkable sophistication of the evaluation process. When I was working on my early definition of evaluation (that evaluation is the task of using criteria to gauge how well something achieves its purpose) I had no idea of the extent of criteria needed for effective evaluation. I mean, these are criteria for criteria!
I also had glanced through the Functional Table of Contents, but was overwhelmed and couldn’t imagine needing that many steps and re-steps to complete an evaluation. However, after looking at the case study and anticipating many problems unless this was done or these people were talked to or this group was given a chance to explain…I gained a further respect for this long list of steps.
What else…I also noticed a lot of similarities between the Program Standards and the AEA guidelines. That was a relief 
It was also helpful to learn that various organizations are all focusing on more or less the same ideas when it comes to evaluation–I think it would be tough if each organization conducted different evaluations!
So overall this week, I feel like I made it over a big hill and found context on the other side-yay! I also learned a bunch from reading through the analyses and blogs of my peers. Also, I think I earned a deep respect for the process of planning and conducting an evaluation. At the same time, I made it through the first two weeks of teaching (whew), began readjusting my sleep patterns (though, who am I kidding there, my sleep patterns haven’t been normal for the last 2 and a half months ), read some wonderful pieces of news, satire, and opinion about the election, and have been pretty happy doing it! I love this, and I sure hope that I keep this one going….
