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Program Evaluation Glossary
"I"
- Immediate Outcome
- The changes in program participants' knowledge, attitudes,
and behavior that occur at certain times during program activities.
- Impact
- The ultimate effect of the program on the problem
or condition that the program or activity was supposed to
do something about.
- Impact Evaluation
- A form of outcome evaluation that assesses the net effect of a program by comparing program outcomes with an estimate of what would have happened in the absence of a program. This form of evaluation is employed when external factors are known to influence the program's outcomes, in order to isolate the program's contribution to achievements or its objectives.
- Impact Theory
- The beliefs, assumptions, and expectations inherent in a program about the nature of the change brought about by program action and how it results in the intended improvement in social conditions. Program impact theory is causal theory: It describes a cause-and-effect sequence in which certain program activities are the instigating causes and certain social beliefs are the effects they eventually produce.
- Implementation
- Development of a program. The process of putting all program
functions and activities into place.
- Implementation Evaluation
- See process evaluation.
- Implementation Failure
- The program does not adequately perform the activities specified in the program design that are assumed to be necessary for bringing about the intended social improvements. It includes situations in which no service, not enough service, or the wrong service is delivered, or the service varies excessively across the target population.
- Implementation Strategy
- The plan for development of a program and procedure for ensuring
the fulfillment of intended functions or services.
- Implemented
- Developed or put into place.
- Independent Evaluation
- An evaluation in which the evaluator has the primary responsibility for developing the evaluation plan, conducting the evaluation, and disseminating the results.
- Independent Variable
- A variable that may, it is believed, predict or cause fluctuation
in an dependent variable.
- Index
- A set of related measures combined to characterize a more
abstract concept.
- Index of Dispersion
- A measure of spread; a statistic used especially with nominal
variables.
- Indicator
- A measure that consists of ordered categories arranged in
ascending or descending order of desirability.
- Indirect Benefit
- Results that are related to a program, but not its
intended objectives or goals.
- Indirect Costs
- The costs associated with impacts or consequences of a program.
- Indirect Impact
- An effect of a program that is not associated with one of
its stated objectives.
- Inferential Statistic
- A statistic used to describe a population using information
from observations on only a probability sample of cases from
the population.
- Informed Consent
- A written agreement by the program participants to
voluntarily participate in an evaluation or study after having
been advised of the purpose of the study, the type of the
information being collected, and how information will be used.
- Information System
- An organized collection, storage, and presentation
system of data and other knowledge for decision making, progress
reporting, and for planning and evaluation of programs. It
can be either manual or computerized, or a combination of
both.
- Innovation Analysis
- Framework for answering a series of questions throughout the life cycle of an innovation-from pilot testing to broad-scale application in order to assess program successes, obstacles, and lessons learned.
- In-Person Interviewing
- Face-to-face interviewing. The interviewer meets personally
with the respondent to conduct the interview.
- Input
- Organizational units, people, dollars, and other resources
actually devoted to the particular program or activity.
- Instrument
- A tool used to collect and organize information.
- Instrumental Outcome
- A measure or measures of phenomena directly related
to program goals and objectives.
- Instrumentation Bias
- Bias introduced in a study by a change in the measurement
instrument during the course of the study.
- Intermediate Outcome
- Results or outcomes of program activities that must
occur prior to the final outcome in order to produce the final
outcome.
- Internal Consistency
- The extent to which all items in a scale or test measure
the same concept.
- Internal Evaluation
- Evaluation conducted by a staff member or unit from within the organization being studied
- Internal Resource
- An agency's or organization's resources, including staff skills and experience and any information already available through current program activities.
- Internal Validity
- The extent to which the causes of an effect are established
by an inquiry.
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- Internal Validity Threat
- Factors other than program participation that may
affect the results or findings.
- Interquartile Range
- A measure of spread; a statistic used with ordinal, interval,
and ratio variables.
- Interrater Reliability
- The extent to which two different researchers obtain the
same result when using the same instrument to measure a concept.
- Interrupted Times Series Design
- The interrupted time series design involves repeated measurement
of an indicator (e.g., reported crime) over time, encompassing
periods both prior to and after implementation of a program.
The goal of such an analysis is to assess whether the treatment
(or program) has "interrupted" or changed a pattern
established prior to the program's implementation. However,
the impact of alternate historical events may threaten the
interpretation of the findings.
- Interval Estimate
- General term for an estimate of a population parameter that
is a range of numerical values.
- Interval Measure
- A quantitative measure with equal intervals between
categories, but with no absolute zero.
- Interval Scale
- A measurement scale that measures quantitative differences
between values of a variable, with equal distances between
the values.
- Interval Variable
- A quantitative variable that attributes of which are ordered
and for which the numerical differences between adjacent attributes
are interpreted as equal.
- Intervening Variable
- A variable that causally links other variables to each other.
In a causal model, this intermediate variable must be influenced
by one variable in order for a subsequent variable to be influenced.
- Interviews
- Interviews involve face-to-face situations or telephone contacts
in which the researcher orally solicits responses.
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