Finding the Evaluation Philosopher's Stone, or How an Evaluation Study is Actually Helping Program Improvement

The use of evaluation findings for program improvement and decision making was explored with the philosophy that different levels of information use occur--from altering perceptions of a program, to influencing major decisions about it. The strategy of deliberately involving potential information users such as clients, sponsors, and other audiences in an evaluation study was employed. A brief discussion is presented on the viability of user participation as an evaluation strategy, with special attention to its potential for increasing the use of evaluation information. A number of program changes are outlined that resulted from an increased use of evaluation information by the program staff. An analysis is presented of why the program staff, in this instance, were very receptive to the information generated by the evaluation study, and why they used it so readily to revise the program. (JD)