Changing the Game The Logic Model

The Government Performance and Results Act (1993) (Public Law 103-62) often called the Results Act Budget deficits and an American public demanding a leaner, less costly government prompted a re-examination of what agencies do and the costs involved. Provide consensus among agencies, Congress, and customers on program goals, strategies, and appropriate measures of success.

Accounting for Success Previously federal agencies used funding allocations, the level of staff deployed, or the number of tasks completed as measurements of performance. business environment requires a different orientation—one that focuses on results. Agencies are being held accountable less for inputs and outputs than for outcomes. For example --a federal employment training program that traditionally measured its success by the number of training participants (an output). Under GPRA, a more meaningful measurement would be changes in the wage levels of its graduates (an outcome). A more general name for this is value-added outcomes.

Performance Measurement means of assessing progress against stated goals and objectives in a way that is unbiased and quantifiable. emphasis on objectivity, fairness, consistency, and responsiveness. functions as a reliable indicator of an organization’s long-term health. Its impact on an organization can be both immediate and far-reaching.

What does success really mean? For outputs and outcomes, and it requires managers to examine how operational processes are linked to goals. program performance is evaluated not on the basis of the amount of money that is spent or the types of activities that are performed, but on whether a program has produced real, tangible results. GPRA requires that each federal agency produce strategic plans that cover at least five years. Intended to be the starting point for each agency’s performance measurement efforts, these strategic plans should: 1. Include the agency’s mission statement 2. Identify the agency's long-term strategic goals 3. Describe how the agency intends to achieve those goals through its activities and through its human, capital, information, and other resources.

Agency Missions The mission statements required by GPRA strategic plans are designed to bring agencies into sharper focus. Why the agency exists what it does describe how it does it. The strategic goals that follow should be an outgrowth of this clearly stated mission. Only when an agency has a true sense of who it is can it align its activities to support mission-related goals and make linkages between levels of funding and their anticipated results. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had traditionally concentrated its efforts on post-disaster assistance. By reexamining mission performance, and by restructuring their programs to support it, FEMA concluded that all emergencies share common traits and pose common demands. Therefore, they should be approached functionally. With this new information in hand, FEMA instituted an "all-hazard" mission that takes a multifaceted, sequential approach to managing disaster—mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery

A logic model is… A depiction of a program showing what the program will do and what it is to accomplish. A series of “if-then” relationships that, if implemented as intended, lead to the desired outcomes The core of program planning and evaluation

Simplest form INPUTS OUTPUTS OUTCOMES

LOGIC MODEL Differences the principles of reasoning reasonable the relationship of elements to each other and a whole MODEL small object representing another, often larger object (represents reality, isn’t reality) preliminary pattern serving as a plan tentative description of a system or theory that accounts for all its known properties

Logic model aka Theory of change Program action Model of change Conceptual map Outcome map Program logic

Era of accountability What gets measured gets done If you don’t measure results, you can’t tell success from failure If you can’t see success, you can’t reward it If you can’t reward success, you’re probably rewarding failure If you can’t see success, you can’t learn from it If you can’t recognize failure, you can’t correct it. If you can demonstrate results, you can win public support.

What logic model is not… A theory Reality An evaluation model or method It is a framework for describing the relationships between investments, activities, and results. It provides a common approach for integrating planning, implementation, evaluation and reporting.

Assumptions Assumptions underlie much of what we do. It is often these underlying assumptions that hinder success or produce less-than-expected results. One benefit of logic modeling is that it helps us make our assumptions explicit. The beliefs we have about the program, the participants, and how the program will work. Includes ideas about: the problem or existing situation program operations expected outcomes and benefits the participants and how they learn, behave, their motivations resources staff external environment: influences the knowledge base etc.

Indicators How will you know it when you see it? What will be the evidence? What are the specific indicators that will be measured? Often expressed as #, % Can have qualitative indicators as well as quantitative indicators

Logic model with indicators for Outputs and Outcomes Farmers practice new techniques Farm profitability increases Program implemented Targeted farmers Farmers learn Number of workshops held Quality of workshops Number and percent of farmers attending Number and percent who increase knowledge Number and percent who practice new techniques Number and percent reporting increased profits; amount of increase

Methods of data collection SOURCES OF INFORMATION Existing data Program records, attendance logs, etc Pictures, charts, maps, pictorial records Program participants Others: key informants, nonparticipants, proponents, critics, staff, collaborators, funders, etc. DATA COLLECTION METHODS Survey Interview Test Observation Group techniques Case study Photography Document review Expert or peer review