Now that you have collected and analyzed data, it is time to develop and share your conclusions and recommendations. As the most outward-facing record of your evaluation, your report holds tremendous influence on perceptions about your program and partners, as well as the people and communities served by your program and evaluation.
A well-developed evaluation report gives the reader confidence in how you analyzed your data to support your findings. A few key components will make your analysis more transparent:
- Interpretations summarize the results of your data analysis. They present what was learned in the evaluation process. For example, students’ intent to act on climate change increased after participating in a program.
- Conclusions offer an additional synthesis of your interpretations, to distill broader meaning about your project from the data analysis. For example, students’ described actions that were addressed in the program, but did not identify other actions.
- Recommendations are suggested actions to improve your program. For example, provide time and context for students to brainstorm potential actions that are meaningful to them, beyond the examples provided in the program.
Before finalizing your report, review it with your partners, participants, community members, and others to deepen the meaning-making of the report. Invite their input on the accuracy of community and cultural representations; alternative interpretations and conclusions from the data analysis; recommendations that may be better suited to the community; and suggestions for how and when to share with different audiences. Reporting often takes longer than anticipated, so allow time to collect and incorporate feedback.
Evaluation reports can take many forms. They should be developed with your goals for communicating findings and the needs of the intended audience in mind. Formats include written reports, infographics, oral briefings, journal articles, conference presentations, and more.
You may have one or more goals for communicating your evaluation results, including but not limited to these:
- To build awareness for your program and its results
- To articulate and foster support for program improvements
- To report program results to funders and other supporters
- To generate new understanding or knowledge within the field
- To replicate and scale the program’s reach
- To showcase examples for evaluation approaches
As much as possible, practitioners, their partners, and evaluators are encouraged to share their evaluation results. For organizations committed to an open-source philosophy, they may post complete reports on sharing sites such as this one or informalscience.org. For programs or organizations with proprietary concerns, they are encouraged to share executive summaries or program overviews. Sharing your findings–and learning from others–increases collective understanding and elevates practice in the field of environmental education overall.
Tips to Embed CREE
G1. Co-create Your Evaluation Report
Engage your partners, participants, and community members in making meaning from your data analysis. Collaborate on creating and refining your interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations. Critically reflect on your assumptions and bring curiosity to better understand how others interpret results.
G2. Honor Your Program Context
Recognize the cultures, histories, and traditions of your program’s context in your reports and evaluation findings. Carefully consider the interests, backgrounds, and expectations of your program partners and participants. Frame your results from an “assets” and “solutions” point of view rather than “deficits” and “problems”.
G2. Make Your Reports Accessible and Fair
Collaborate with your partners and participants to optimize your reporting format for the intended audiences. Match your reporting formats to your audience, considering language, literacy levels, report format, and tone. Use design, graphics, and images that represent the community authentically and mitigate negative biases or stereotypes.
G3. Communicate Widely
Share your evaluation results as widely as possible with program partners, participants, local community members, communities of practice, other organizations, and the environmental education community. Invite partners to act on findings and provide insights to foster continuous program improvement. Participate in NAAEE’s Annual Research Symposium to contribute to and learn from the current state and future directions of EE research and to advance the use of practices proven to be effective.
Resources
Consult these resources that support Communicating and Sharing Evaluation Findings:
- Share Your Story provides examples of evaluation reports that infused culturally responsive and equitable values and processes.
- The W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Step-by-Step Guide to Evaluation: How to Become Savvy Evaluation Consumers (2017) offers guidance on how to summarize, communicate. and reflect on evaluation findings (p. 183-208).
- Learning for Action’s Practical Tools for Designing and Implementing Culturally Responsive and Inclusive Evaluations offer useful checklists to center equity and social justice values in evaluation. See Checklist #8: Equity in Practice, Report & Presentation.
- The University of Michigan’s MEERA (My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant) provides guidance on reporting evaluation results.
Explore the Values
We encourage you to investigate how each value is incorporated into the evaluation process.
Explore the Evaluation Process
Explore other elements of evaluation to drive excellence in your environmental education program design, build stronger and more equitable relationships, contribute to meaningful experiences, and yield equitable outcomes.