To determine what impact the program is having on participants. In general, one important purpose of any evaluation should be continual program improvement. By using evaluation results, program administrators can better understand how their program is working and where it is headed. With this greater understanding, they are better able to make decisions that will improve the program in the long run. The purpose of evaluation should influence the design of the evaluation.
Evaluation can take many different forms.
One factor influencing the form an evaluation could take is the purpose for which the evaluation was designed in the first place. To plan for additional professional development, the school wants to evaluate the current abilities of teachers who participated as well as the needs of teachers who did not. Thus, data will need to be collected from a wide range of teachers. School B is planning a series of professional development activities for teachers on different computer applications. This school wants to use evaluation to decide if the professional development was a success and if it should be repeated.