Discuss Table 3.1 - Program Planning Cycle and Evaluation Activities (pp. 62-3). Pros/cons.

Something you disagree with? Where does "monitoring" occur? Anything missing? Bring in any prior experience you might have with such a planning cycle. Will this model fit with the program/project you discussed in the chap. 1 and the subsequent assignments? Other aspects of chapter three you'd like to discuss? Other planning cycles you've used? I find the cyclical nature of program planning to be the most important pro in chapter three. If stakeholders and participants understand that programs and their evaluations are cyclical, then they might not be limited or frustrated by the wider disclosure of information to various audiences or the potential scrutiny and criticism (B&D p.36). This understanding will hopefully help participants see that the reasons for evaluation are to help determine needs before the committal of resources, especially time, money, and personnel, and the assurance that the proposed activities will indeed result in the needs being met (p. 51). Hopefully the target audience will understand that this is for their benefit and not for the pointing of fingers or dismissal of programs (though they could be used for those reasons as well). Monitoring should occur throughout the implementation of the project and even after the formative evaluation. According to Boulmetis and Dutwin, monitoring activities should collect information from clients and continue to collect these data even after the client has left the program (p.53) as this can be used later for impact evaluation. I have had experience with the project planning cycles in 503 and 512 in completing the needs assessment, program planning, and formative and summative evaluation development. Being instructional design planning cycles, they were not the exact planning cycles noted in chapter 3, but they had the same basic components. I have yet to carry out a complete summative evaluation, Ive merely penned out how I would carry one out. Like Tracy mentioned in her post, I will also be starting in the middle of the project planning program cycle. PBIS has been a part of a our elementary schools for many years, so I will be jumping in at the formative and summative assessment stages. Im looking forward to having this type of experience under my belt too.