John and Betty Gray
Early Childhood Grants
Program Evaluation Framework
Introduction
The intent of the Program Evaluation Framework is to help agencies and organizations plan and
implement their OCF-funded early childhood literacy or parenting projects and to ensure the
best outcomes for children and families served by these programs. The framework offers
multiple options. Organizations have the opportunity to choose among objectives, and among
approaches to measuring progress toward them, in order to design an evaluation that best fits
their projects.
Guidelines
Within each project area, you may select as many objectives to track for evaluation as fit your
proposal, taking into account program resources and project structure. Additionally, you have
the option of adding your own outcome(s), as long as the additions fall within the Request for
Proposals parameters and are justified in your proposal. Methodology for evaluation should take
into consideration the language/literacy level of adult participants, as well as cultural and
geographic issues.
Submit your chosen objectives, and the relevant population, activities, measures and project
outcome information, in matrix form as an attachment to your proposal. Successful applicants
will be asked to submit evaluation reports twice yearly, using a combination of matrix and
narrative format.
On the next few pages are specific goals and objectives for both the Parent Education program
and the Literacy for Young Children program, followed by a template for the evaluation matrix and
an example of its use for each program. Please follow the guidelines below:

Look across columns and make sure that there is correspondence between points;
that is, each measurement point corresponds to an outcome.

Arrange related information across all the columns so that relevant points line up spatially.
This will make it easier for you to track outcomes and for OCF to follow your intent and
progress.

Indicate (as a title for the matrix table) the date that the matrix was written and the year
that the evaluation plan is for. For example, the date might be 11/05/06 and the year
would be year one (7/1/07-6/31/08).
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
If your project includes training of staff, your matrix must include both a quantitative
outcome (number of staff to be trained) and a qualitative outcome (impact of the training
on staff) related to the training. To assess the qualitative impact of the training, you can at
a minimum survey staff immediately following the training; alternatively, a more extensive
assessment would entail observation of staff or surveying staff some months later to
determine the impact of their new knowledge on their work.

Definition of categories:

Goal/purpose: this is the goal identified by OCF in the framework for that grant
category.

Project: name of project as designated on proposal.

Objective: objectives selected from evaluation framework.

Target population: whom you are serving; e.g., "low-income elementary school
students from xxxx school," or "program staff" to receive training. This would be a
description of the population that you hope to draw upon for involvement in your
project.

Activities: exactly what you will be doing over the year in concrete terms; e.g., 20
six-week parenting classes using “abc curriculum" with 15 adults per group for a
total of 300 adults served. Include number of anticipated groups, adults anticipated
to participate in groups, etc., as relevant to your project. Or if this is an objective
related to the development of an agency infrastructure, an activity might be to “hire
two bi-lingual, bi-cultural parent educators."

Measurement: the measurement approach you will be using (not anticipated
outcome such as score or numbers) such as "xyz screening instrument" or "openended phone survey." Note that qualitative approaches and/or instruments will be in
this column.

Outcome: your anticipated outcome, using your selected system of
measurement. In this column, you will list projected scores, numbers served,
percentage who changed, etc., as well as qualitative outcomes that describe the
establishment of a new infrastructure (which often look like a repeat of “activity"
such as “two qualified counselors hired by 8/06").
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Parent Education
Goals

To expand access to proven parent education programs and parent education
professional training in Oregon communities where access has been limited.

To expand access to proven parent education programs and parent education
professional training for underserved populations of Oregon where access has been
limited.
Objectives
1.
To increase parent, family member, and child care provider understanding of children’s
learning and development.
Methodology details:
 Must capture agency’s efforts and/or individual recipients’ acquisition of
understanding.
 Must demonstrate acceptable pre-post format or retrospective post format.
 Can measure percentage of parents with increased understanding.
 Must submit sample of instrument and protocol for use.
2.
To increase/enhance parent, family member, and child care provider support of
children’s learning and development.
Methodology details:
 Must capture actual implemented change or self-report of change as a result of
training.
 Acceptable format could include recipient self-report or supervisor report following
specified amount of time post-training.
 Describe protocol for implementation and submit instrument and/or draft of
instrument.
3.
To increase the number of parents, family members, and caregivers who are trained to
support children’s learning and development.
Methodology details:
 Must track the number of participants trained and compare to estimated need
and/or proposal for training services.
 Must be able to evaluate the quality of the training from participants’ viewpoints.
Submit a draft of evaluation form.
 May also track acquisition of new understandings (see Objective #1).
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4.
To increase the number of proven education program activities that promote parent,
family member, and child care provider understanding and support of children’s learning
and development.
Methodology details:
 Describe the activity or activities and how these activities are linked to newly
trained professionals (e.g., professional taught a course, program increased the
participation of parents in supplemental parenting activities, etc.).
 Measure the increase in proven education program activities as a result of either
newly trained professionals (e.g., how many new courses will be taught over what
was previously offered, how many parent-child play groups occurred, parent-child
parent-education labs, etc.).
5.
To replicate and implement proven parent education program/professional training
program.
Methodology details:
 Must capture the planned quality of the replication (e.g., quality assurance standards
for the project, such as level of education/experience of hired applicants or
employees new to position, training required, supervision including who, type, and
amount, case/work load, etc.).
 Estimate anticipated timeline and track if timeline met.
 Include Objective #4 when project goes into implementation phase.
6.
To enhance quality and/or infrastructure of agency, program, and/or community.
Methodology details:
 This objective and outcomes might be evaluated primarily in a qualitative manner.
 Describe what enhancement of your agency/program you might anticipate as a result
of this newly implemented project. (Examples: increased staff interest in other
professional activities, staff retention, ability to receive funding from additional
sources, parent motivation to organize play groups, etc.)
 The narrative description could also be accompanied by an anticipated timeline and
numbers impacted.
 This objective relates to the strategic planning of an agency/program.
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Literacy for Young Children
Goals
1.
To expand access to proven reading and literacy programs and experiences for young
children and their parents or caregivers in Oregon communities where access has been
limited.
2.
To expand access to proven early reading and literacy programs and experiences for
underserved populations of Oregon where access has been limited.
3.
To enhance proven reading and literacy programs and experiences for young children.
Objectives:
1.
To increase the number of young children, parents and/or caregivers served by early
reading and literacy programs.
Methodology details:
 Report percentage increase in numbers of children served.
 Report projected number of children served versus actual number served.
 Can designate a specific population, such as Spanish-speaking children, children of
developmentally delayed parents, etc.
2.
To increase parent, family member and/or caregiver knowledge about supporting young
children’s early reading and literacy development.
Methodology details:
 Increase in percentage of parents/family members who have new knowledge is more
practical to report than increase in knowledge.
 Pre-post format or retrospective parent questionnaire following activity.
 Submit draft or final version of questionnaire and protocol for implementation and
tracking.
 Instruments include those used for same project or instruments that follow
acceptable standards for questionnaires.
3.
To increase parent, family member and/or caregiver confidence in supporting young
children’s early reading and literacy development.
Methodology details:
 Measure percentage of parents that report increase in confidence in supporting
young children’s early language and literacy after participation in program. This is
based on the assumption that increased confidence correlates to increased parental
support of children’s early literacy experiences.
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
4.
Submit instrument and/or draft of instrument and describe protocol for tracking.
Most practical methodology would be retrospective questionnaire.
To increase parent, family member and/or caregiver support of young children’s early
reading and literacy development.
Methodology details:
 Determine what changes were actually implemented by parents as a result of literacy
project.
 Determine percentage of participating parents who implemented change.
 Phone surveys, written questionnaires, and observations would be acceptable
methods. May track other ways to measure increased support of children’s literacy
such as library use.
 Submit draft or final version of questionnaire and/or questions and describe protocol
for implementation and tracking. Instruments include those used for same project or
instrument that follows acceptable standards for questionnaires.
 Some programs may want to see if there is a correlation between increase in parent
confidence and increase in support for children’s literacy although this is probably
beyond the scope of the project.
5.
To replicate and begin implementation of a proven early childhood reading and literacy
program.
Methodology details:
 Must capture the quality of the replication (e.g., quality assurance standards for the
project, such as level of education/experience of hired applicants or employees new
to position, training required, supervision including who, type, and amount,
case/work load, etc.).
 Estimate anticipated timeline and track if timeline met.
 Additionally, must capture the resultant program activities and numbers anticipated
to be impacted and numbers actually impacted. (See other objectives.)
6.
To enhance quality and/or infrastructure of agency, program, and/or community as a
result of project activities.
Methodology details:
 This objective might be evaluated primarily in a qualitative manner, although not
necessarily.
 What enhancement of agency/program might be anticipated as a result of this newly
implemented project? (Examples might be: increased staff interest in other
professional activities, staff retention, ability to receive funding from other additional
sources, parents’ motivation to use the library more, parents’ interest in other
classes, etc.)
 A narrative description might be accompanied by an anticipated timeline and
numbers impacted.
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
7.
This objective relates to the strategic planning of an agency/program.
To create and implement collaboration between proven early reading and literacy
program and other natural literacy “touch points” for young children (e.g., the library).
Methodology details:
 Articulate role division, quality assurance standards (see Objective #5 above) and
anticipated timeline.
 Questionnaire by partners to rate the quality of the collaboration.
 Submit draft or final version of questionnaire to evaluate collaborative process.
 Anticipated activities/experiences and numbers of children/families actually impacted
(see other objectives).
8.
To enhance existing early childhood literacy program by including new early literacy and
reading activities available to families.
Methodology details:
 Submit timeline and quality assurance standards for the development and
implementation of additional activities.
 Select outcome(s) from above list of outcomes or create additional outcome to
evaluate result of implementation.
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The Oregon Community Foundation
John and Betty Gray Early Childhood Initiative
Evaluation Matrix Template & Examples
Matrix Template
Goal
Project
Objectives
Target
Population
Activities
Measurement
Outcome
Target
Population
Cannon
Beach and
surrounding
area parents
of young
children
Activities
Measurement
Outcome
Evening
“ABC
Parenting
Course”
once a week
for 10 weeks
Number of
parents who
complete
course;
percentage of
participants
who report
increased
understanding using
ABC
questionnaire
20 parents
will complete
course; 90%
will report
increased
understanding of how to
support
children’s
learning and
development
Activities
Measurement
Outcome
Weekly story
time at the
public library,
reading
books in
Spanish and
English for
one year
Number of
Spanishspeaking
children
under age 6
who attend
each week
during grant
period
15 Spanishspeaking
children
under age 6
will attend
each week
during grant
period
Parent Education Example
Goal/Purpose
Project
Objectives
Expanded
access to
proven
parent
education
programs in
areas where
access has
been limited
Cannon
Beach “ABC
Parenting”
courses
To increase
parent
understanding of how to
support
children’s
learning and
development
Literacy for Young Children Example
Goal/Purpose
Project
Objectives
Expanded
access to
proven
reading and
literacy
programs in
populations
where access
has been
limited
“Los Ninos
Story Hour”
To increase
the number
of young
children
served by
early reading
and literacy
programs
Target
Population
Spanishspeaking
children
under age 6
in the
Springfield
area
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