Stakeholder collaboration in the design and implementation of a family literacy portfolio assessment

Collaborative, participatory, and empowerment forms of evaluation advocate the inclusion of stakeholders in decision-making roles in the evaluation process; however; little in the literature describes the involvement of stakeholders in the design and implementation of evaluative tools for data collection. This case study describes the collaborative process and the lessons learned when the staff of a family literacy program and an evaluator collaborated to design and implement a portfolio assessment that was used to collect program evaluation information over a two-year period. The program, Even Start, provides integrated education and human services to meet the literacy needs of participants. The evaluation offered opportunities to collaborate with stakeholders—the program coordinator and family educators—in each step of the creation and implementation of the portfolio system.