Education Project Evaluation - Introduction

How are California Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) funds changing your community in "meaningful" ways? This online guide is designed to provide you, California B-WET grant applicants and recipients, with the tools and techniques to answer that question.

We know it takes a lot of time and energy to design and implement an education project and that evaluation may not be your highest priority or greatest skill. We've designed this online guide for people like you, who need to know more about what evaluation is and how to do it. This guide is not designed to make you an expert evaluator, but to familiarize you with the evaluation process, with California B-WET evaluation requirements, and with planning and managing a project evaluation whether you conduct it yourself or work with an outside evaluator.

Evaluation is an integral part of quality education—it's not just the test at the end—and it's important to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), which funds the California B-WET program. Evaluation is the systematic study and documentation of a project's outcomes to improve its effectiveness, guide judgments about its impact, and/or inform decisions about its future. Evaluation can help you learn more about your audience's understandings, needs and issues as you plan your project. It can help you adjust and improve as you develop your project. And finally, evaluation can help you assess how well you've done after implementing your project. Evaluation throughout keeps you connected to your audience and on track with your goals and objectives. 

We hope you find this online guide useful. Because it was designed for you, we welcome your feedback on what you find most useful and what you might need that's not here. Please send your feedback to Seaberry Nachbar.