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Program Evaluation Glossary
"T"
- Target
- An objective (constraint or expected result) set by management
to communicate program purpose to operating personnel (for
example, maintaining a monthly output level).
- Target Population
- The population, clients, or subjects intended to be identified
and served by the program.
- Testing Bias
- Bias and foreknowledge introduced to participants as a result
of a pretest. The experience of the first test may impact
subsequent reactions to the treatment or to retesting.
- Test-retest
- Administration of the same test instrument twice to the same
population for the purpose of assuring consistency of measurement.
- Theory Failure
- The program is implemented as planned but its services do not produce the immediate effects on the participants that are expected, the ultimate social benefits as intended, or both.
- Third-party Evaluator
- See outside evaluator.
- Time-series Designs
- Research designs that collect data over long time intervals
- before, during, and after program implementation. This allows
for the analysis of change in key factors over time.
- Transformed Variable
- A variable for which the attribute values have been systematically
changed for the sake of data analysis.
- Treatment Group
- The subjects of the intervention being studied.
- Treatment Variable
- An independent variable in program evaluation that is of
particular interest because it corresponds to a program's
intent to change some dependent variable.
- Trend
- The change in a series of data over a period of years
that remains after the data have been adjusted to remove seasonal
and cyclical fluctuations.
- Triangulation
- The combination of methodologies in the study of the same
phenomenon or construct; a method of establishing the accuracy
of information by comparing three or more types of independent
points of view on data sources (for example, interviews, observation,
and documentation; different times) bearing on the same findings.
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