Ongoing responsibility for literacy program
As with the other steps, you have to name a person who will be responsible
for evaluating the program and the program itself. This person
should be senior and have the authority to go along with the responsibility.
Evaluation plan and strategy
The goals and objectives you developed in Step 3 are the starting point.
The objectives had to be realistic and able to be achieved. In the action
plans, you listed the outcomes aimed at and these outcomes had to be
measurable.
Selected Steps in Evaluating Outcomes of the
Literacy Program
- Plan to evaluate the program formally once a year.
- Develop outcome measures at the beginning of the planning stage, for example,
how are you going to measure the effectiveness of a particular change? These
should be noted on your action plans for the various goals and objectives.
- Identify what information will be needed and set up a simple system to collect
it.
- Test the re-worked written material, videos, signage, and other simplified
communications procedures and methods with clients and staff.
- Measure the effects on both staff and clients—whether they find the
simpler material easier to understand and explain. Lawyers for Literacy have
developed some simple questions to ask in order to evaluate the impact of
the literacy program.40 These can be found at www.plainlanguagenetwork.org/LawyersForLiteracy/Audit/index.html.
They can be easily adapted to the needs of administrative tribunals.
- Using the results, review material and training.
- Revise and update material and work plan as you go along.
- Use these evaluation results to update the overall plans for the next year.
- Discuss the literacy program with colleagues and exchange information about
what you have learned and what you believe is a “best practice.”
40. Lawyers for Literacy, The Law Firm Literacy Audit
(Vancouver: British Columbia
Branch of the Canadian Bar Association).