Center for Research, Evaluation, and Assessment
Summative Evaluation
Summative Evaluation: Measurement and Documentation of Program Impact
Summative Evaluation typically involves the preparation of a formal report outlining the impact of a program. For instance, an evaluation report will typically detail who participated in a program, what activities affected them, and what gains or improvements resulted from their participation. Often this report will include details regarding what prerequisites or conditions are essential or helpful to the replication of the program, program costs and benefits, and disaggregated results showing findings for specific subgroups of participants.
There is no crisp dividing line between formative evaluation and summative evaluation. Much of the information gathered during formative evaluation activities may be reported in formal summative reports, particularly during the early development of new programs, in order to show how the program is responding to challenges and reaching benchmarks and milestones along the way toward intended outcomes.
Usually, a compelling case that your program has had a positive impact requires measurement of program targets before, during, and after implementation of the program. This requires careful program planning and early adoption of appropriate data collection methods and a management information database.
Your summative evaluation report is a showcase for outcomes associated with your program, produced independently by a respected research and development institution. NWREL's Evaluation Program maintains a large, expert staff and state of the art facilities for statistical and qualitative analysis, technical writing, and graphic display of findings. In addition to written reports, we can produce a variety of multimedia presentations of your data, suitable for use in slide shows, publication on the world wide web, etc.