Evaluation is an integral part of high-quality education programs. Evaluation is the systematic study and documentation of a project’s outcomes to improve its effectiveness, guide judgments about its impact, and/or inform decisions about its future. It can help you learn more about your audience’s level of understanding, needs, and issues as you plan your project; adjust and improve as you develop your project; and assess how well you are implementing your project.

2011 Evaluation Capacity Building Initiative

In 2011, the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office and Chesapeake Bay Trust partnered with evaluation professionals from the Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI) to offer training and technical assistance to environmental education providers. The goal was to build the capacity of organizations to adequately measure and demonstrate the impact of their education programs.This opportunity was open to organizations who provide Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences for students and/or teacher professional development in the Chesapeake Bay region.

The initiative included an introductory workshop in June that focused on the basics of program evaluation and planning. This was followed by in depth one-on-one mentoring from ILI evaluators for select organizations throughout the summer and fall to assist them in the development of evluation plans or improvement of existing evaluations. For groups not involved with in depth mentoring, there was "as needed" technical support available from ILI. Finally, a follow-up workshop was held in early December where initiative participants provided updates on their evaluation planning and had break-out sessions about topics such as analyzing survey results and developing logic models.

Programmatic Chesapeake B-WET Evaluation

NOAA, the Chesapeake Bay Trust, and the Keith Campbell Foundation commissioned an evaluation to determine whether the B-WET Chesapeake professional development and meaningful watershed educational experience programs were attaining short-term outcomes as measures of potential for a future citizenry committed to protecting the Bay. The evaluation was published in February 2007 (Executive Summary /Full Report ). Measures evaluated were:

• Teacher use of meaningful watershed educational experience practices
• Student improvement in stewardship characteristics and academic achievement

Evaluating Your Environmental Education Project

The B-WET Program has developed a comprehensive set of guidance documents to assist grantees in evaluating their projects in accordance with NOAA education evaluation standards. While the B-WET Project Evaluation website below highlights the California B-WET Program, the information should assist B-WET Chesapeake applicants in developing a plan for evaluation as requested in the B-WET Federal Funding Opportunity. B-WET Chesapeake applicants should use the logic model format below rather than the format provided on the California B-WET evaluation site.

• B-WET Chesapeake Logic Model Format
• B-WET Project Evaluation (California B-WET)

Grantees may also find the information on these sites useful as they develop evaluation strategies.

• MEERA-My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant
• The Evaluation Center