Finally, analyzing the results your agency is achieving this year can help in future program planning. For example, this year’s achievements can be used to set next year’s targets. Reviewing the improvements made in your agency this year could help determine where your efforts should be focused the following year. Simply put, the results will tell you what you have done so far, and you will use them to determine what should (or should not) be done differently in the future to improve your program.

The results of the agency assessment process probably won’t be a surprise. When deciding where to focus your program improvement efforts, don’t choose only those areas that you know will show you in your best light! Of course you want to highlight what you do well, but you also want to identify areas where you could make improvements.

Agency assessment is not about proving we are perfect. It’s about discovering what works and what doesn’t work in your agency. And it’s about responding to your findings by allocating your resources so that your agency is the best that it can be. Assessment is an opportunity for growth and a way to improve your program. Ultimately, our reason for being is to deliver quality literacy programming: agency assessment can help us do that to the best of our abilities and within the resources available to us.