Brandon W. Youker

Evaluation Lab Director

Evaluation Lab

Western Michigan University

Learning through the Lab

At WMU’s Evaluation Lab, undergraduate student-employees receive evaluation-specific training and supervision while working on multiple evaluation projects in the Kalamazoo community. During this Evaluation Café, Dr. Brandon Youker, the Eval Lab's director, will provide an overview of the lab, its structure, and history. A panel of undergraduate student-evaluators will describe their experiences at the lab and its impact on them. They will discuss how the lab engages them in evaluation, empowers them to make decisions, and provides them growth and leadership opportunities. The Q&A portion of the session will allow audience members to learn more about strategies, benefits, and challenges associated with engaging students in evaluation.

Daniela Schröter

School of Public Affairs and Administration

Western Michigan University

Lyssa Wilson Becho

The Evaluation Center

Western Michigan University

Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead

Neag School of Education

University of Connecticut

Navigating the Garden of Evaluation Approaches

Join us in this interactive Evaluation Café to explore the Garden of Evaluation Approaches. Together, we will delve into practice dimensions of evaluation to enhance flexibility and intentionality in our evaluative work. Discover how to use the Garden to foster creativity, inclusivity, and practical application, making informed and adaptive choices across diverse evaluation contexts. Explore new additions to the Garden, connect with peers, and walk away with actionable insights and tools to navigate and apply the Garden framework effectively in your practice.

For background, the Garden of Evaluation is a multidimensional, practice-oriented framework that presents a holistic, evolving ecosystem of evaluation approaches. Designed to enhance understanding and communication about evaluation, the Garden organizes and compares approaches across key practice dimensions. The visual representations ("flowers") map each approach by its underlying worldview, research design, and dimensions of values and valuing, context, use, breadth and depth of engagement, power dynamics, and activism for social justice. The expanded Garden now includes additional approaches and maps initial garden areas.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

After this presentation, audience members will 

• know the practical dimensions that make up the Garden
• know how they might use the Garden in their own work
• know where to get additional resources (i.e., handouts)

Cherie M. Avent, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

University of Illinois

Unlocking Insights: Approaches to Data Integration and Effective Reporting in Mixed Methods Studies

Many evaluators utilize mixed methods to understand the complexities of social programs. Two important components in a mixed methods study are data integration and communicating the findings/results. Data integration is the intentional combining of qualitative and quantitative findings in a study. Sharing the story or results following integration can present unique and challenging opportunities. Participants of this workshop will learn approaches to data integration based on mixed methods design types. Furthermore, we will discuss strategies for reporting and disseminating mixed methods findings to diverse audiences. 

Special in-person event

Karen T. Jackson, Ph.D.

Associate Professor Leadership Studies

North Carolina A&T State University

President, American Evaluation Association

Dr. Jackson's visit marks 13 consecutive years that the current American Evaluation Association has visited Western Michigan University.

Evaluation, Engaging Community, Sharing Leadership

Engaging community and sharing leadership is challenging in stable environments. The volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environments evaluators face can create an environment where growth, learning and unlearning occur. Leaders engaging in shared leadership in community listen, share and discuss shared formal and informal ethical agreements and how these agreements interact with the complexities of society and factor into how progress is made. When evaluators apply shared leadership approaches, we accompany groups through a process of sharing communications and information; distributing knowledge, data, and stories that can guide the communities and organizations we’re working with to imagine ways to thrive as we walk into the future together. 

This year, there is an additional opportunity to engage:

Connect, Learn, Lead: Elevating Your Evaluation Career Through Service

Following Dr. Jackson’s presentation, you're welcome to stay for dessert, coffee, and dialogue with leaders from the American Evaluation Association, Michigan Association for Evaluation, the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation, and the Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation. Through a facilitated conversation, you will learn how engaging with these organizations can help you grow your professional network, build your evaluation credentials, and strengthen your leadership skills. You will hear about the leadership pathways of accomplished professionals and discover ways to get involved in the profession locally and nationally. Whether you’re an emerging evaluator or seasoned professional, you’ll leave with fresh ideas and valuable connections for the next leg of your evaluation journey. 

Brad Watts

Assistant Director

The Evaluation Center

Western Michigan University

Refreshing the Program Evaluation Standards to Better Serve the Field

The Joint Committee on Educational Evaluation's Program Evaluation Standards (PES) are the official evaluation quality standards in the U.S. and Canada. However, much has changed in the evaluation field since the 3^rd edition of the standards was published in 2010. This presentation will share how the committee is addressing some of these changes through refreshed language, new standard statements, and a streamlined format for a forthcoming 4th edition of the PES. Additionally, attendees will learn about how practicing evaluators can contribute to the revision process by serving as field testers.

Sarah Mason

Director, Center for Research Evaluation

University of Mississippi

Err....you're an evaluator? Research on explaining evaluators to non-evaluators 

To advance our field, people need to know what evaluation is and why it is of value. However, many evaluators know that it can be difficult to explain what we do to those unfamiliar with evaluation. This presentation explores a series of research studies exploring (a) the general public's understanding of evaluation, and (2) strategies for explaining evaluation to non-evaluators. Sarah will share findings from experiments on how to enhance understanding of evaluation and reflections on building the profile of our profession.