Evaluation is critical to learning whether a community’s truancy prevention program is having the desired impact of promoting school attendance, attachment, and achievement. The links below go to resources that can help you begin to evaluate your program. Many of the strategies can be done at little or no cost. Also included are links to organizations and centers that can facilitate evaluation activities.

American Evaluation Association
This international professional association works to improve evaluation practices and methods and to increase the use of evaluations for programs, personnel, and technology.

CDC Evaluation Working Group
This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) working group seeks to define and organize the essential elements of program evaluation, leading to institutional changes that promote evaluation practices at CDC and throughout the public health system.

Detangling Data Collection: Methods for Gathering Data
Harvard Family Research Project, August 2004
This document describes common data collection methods, including surveys and questionnaires, interviews and focus groups, observations, tests and assessments, and secondary sources and data reviews.

Documenting Progress and Demonstrating Results: Evaluating Local Out-of-School Time Programs
Harvard Family Research Project, September 2002
This guide provides practitioners with techniques, tools, and strategies to improve and track program effectiveness.

Guide to Frugal Evaluation for Criminal Justice
Maxfield, M.G. February 2001
This report explains various evaluation methods, including approaches to design, measurement, and data collection and analysis, that produce useful findings at a relatively low cost.

Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP)—Evaluation Exchange
The Evaluation Exchange highlights current issues facing program evaluators and practitioners, providing information on innovative methods and approaches to evaluation, emerging trends in evaluation practice, and practical applications of evaluation theory.

Juvenile Justice Evaluation Center (JJEC)
Sponsored by OJJDP and coordinated by the Justice Research and Statistical Association, JJEC provides evaluation tools and information to help state and local program personnel evaluate juvenile justice programs and systems.

The Logic Model for the Evaluation of the Truancy Reduction Program
Colorado Foundation for Families and Children
This fact sheet provides information on using a logic model to evaluate OJJDP's Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program and to identify successful and effective interventions for keeping youth in school.

Online Evaluation Resource Library (OERL)
Funded by the National Science Foundation, OERL supports the continuous improvement of project evaluations by housing a large collection of evaluation reports, tools, and instruments from past and current project evaluations and by creating guidelines for improving evaluation practices.

Performance Measures in Out-of-School Time Evaluation
Harvard Family Research Project, March 2004
This document provides various academic, youth development, and prevention performance measures currently being used to assess out-of-school time programs.

Prevention Pathways
Sponsored by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Prevention Pathways provides information on substance abuse prevention programs, program implementation, evaluation, technical assistance, and online courses.

Promoting Quality Through Professional Development: A Framework for Evaluation
Harvard Family Research Project, August 2004
This document highlights professional development initiatives such as staff recruitment, training, and development and the impact of such initiatives on youth outcomes and program success.