Scales & Examples
Selecting Scales that Link to Program Goals
How might you identify scales to use based on your program goals? Below are examples of “outcome statements” that AGTO programs in Maine created. For these examples, we have recommended measures of individual assets or related constructs that seem most relevant to assessing whether that particular outcome has been realized.
These sample statements show the recommended format for AGTO outcome statements:
By X date, X will change, by X amount, for X population
Examples of Program Outcome Statements | Aligned Asset Measures |
By DATE, 50% of participants will report feeling a deeper connection to a caring adult. | Other adult relationships |
By the end of the school year, 75% of students will report feeling more valued in their school community. | Community values youth |
By the completion of an agreement (3 months), 90% of referred youth will accept responsibility for the harmful impact that their behavior has upon the victim, their families and the communities as measured by a signed statement and Restorative Justice staff evaluations. | Responsibility |
By DATE, 85% of the participants of the program will report an increase in social competency skills with an emphasis on planning and decision-making and interpersonal competence. | Interpersonal competence |
By DATE, 35% of youth attending the program will report an increase in self-esteem. | Self-esteem |
50% of participants who complete the eight week program will report a 30% increase in positive expectations for themselves as measured by a pre/post survey. | Hopeful purpose |
In these examples, research specifically has shown a relationship between an outcome that an AGTO program was interested in and a specific asset measure. For many other outcomes (e.g., knowledge of effective parenting, financial literacy, workplace skills), there is insufficient research to date to recommend particular assets as the most likely influences on those outcomes. Program leaders and evaluators may use their logic models and literature reviews to hypothesize and then test associations beyond the most obvious connections.
Thus, the aligning of the assets measures with a few specific outcome statements presented here is done to provide a convenient example for programs to consider and not intended to limit program administrators’ or evaluators’ imagination in how best to measure their results.