Technology Evaluation Project
The Management Information Exchange announces the launching of the Technology Evaluation Project (TEP). The purpose of the project is to create a national structure specifically to help Technology Initiative Grant (TIG) recipients evaluate the effectiveness of their projects. It is hoped - indeed, expected - that the effort will benefit more than just the targeted TIG grantees. There is a growing recognition in the legal services community that evaluation of program efforts is a core management function that should examine the effectiveness of current efforts and certainly be built into any major new effort undertaken. That is particularly true where there are significant costs associated with innovative efforts, as is the case with many technology initiatives.
MIE recently hired John Tull to serve as the project manager for TEP. John will bring his experience as a manager, his knowledge of evaluations of the legal services delivery system and his familiarity with technology to help this project serve the legal services community. In addition, the project has contracted with Summit Collaborative and Innovation Network, Inc., recognized experts in the field of evaluation, to work as an Evaluation Development Team to provide assistance in developing evaluation tools to be used by TIG grantees and by others. John and the Evaluation Development Team will work with a National Advisory Committee made up of persons from the field and others working with various aspects of technology and legal services delivery. In addition, they will consult with working groups of people from affected field programs who will provide guidance and feedback on specific aspects of the project. The evaluation designs will be field tested to assure their effectiveness and ease of use.
While TEP may help to answer broader questions about technology and legal services delivery, it is principally aimed at TIG grantees for FY 2001. It is specifically focused on helping those grantees meet their responsibilities to the Legal Services Corporation to evaluate the projects which had been funded with their grants. The Technology Evaluation Project will focus on four specific outcomes.
 | The first product of the process will be evaluation guidelines designed to provide guidance for legal services programs about how to evaluate their technology projects. The guidelines will help current TIG grantees, as well as others, consider what is necessary for effective evaluation of technology efforts and related aspects of service delivery. TEP will not itself evaluate technology grants, but rather will assist grantees as they design and implement their own evaluations to accomplish what is required under the terms of their grants. The guidelines will also help others in the legal services community approach their self evaluation needs with a better understanding of the importance of evaluation and how efficiently and effectively to accomplish it. |
| The second product will be specific methodologies for evaluation, including instruments for the collection of data to ensure that the evaluations are soundly based. The evaluation instruments will be tailored to the specific needs of the TIG grantees and will be built around the variety of projects which had been funded. For instance, more than half of projects (28 of 50) are for statewide websites which are designed to accomplish a variety of purposes, including outreach to clients, supporting self representation by members of the client community, providing public information about legal services and specific programs, and linking advocates and other personnel together. One set of evaluation instruments will be designed specifically for these grants. One of the first steps of the project will be to identify other common themes among the grants in order to develop instruments which will be useful to them. |
| The third product that TEP will produce is the training of legal services program staff on evaluation techniques. The training will be focused on how the evaluation methodologies and instruments developed for the grantees can be used by them. |
| Finally, TEP will facilitate the provision of technical assistance to TIG grantees. The project will provide support to grantees to answer questions unique to their own projects. |
|
The legal services community has a deep interest in evaluating the effectiveness of the technology initiatives that are underway. First, LSC is spending $11.25 million over two years on technology initiatives with money appropriated by Congress. It is imperative that we demonstrate the many responsible and effective ways that that money has been used to increase our capacity to serve our clients. Second, each program that undertakes a new initiative should know for itself and for its clients, how it is doing, whether it is making a difference and what adjustments in approach might enhance its ability to serve its clients.
Finally, there are questions that many in the legal services community have regarding the effectiveness of new delivery approaches, many of which are based on new technologies. It is important that we as a community be able to answer the questions posed about the effectiveness of these new techniques. We need to know if, and how, they benefit clients. The evaluation of those questions needs to be unbiased and credible, to tell us if the new approaches work and to point the way to improve their effectiveness.
If you have questions about the Technology Evaluation Project, please contact John Tull at 303 258 9227 or
jatassoc@earthlink.net, or MIE executive director Patricia Pap at 617 556 0288 or
ppap@m-i-e.org.
|
