Research on Evaluation: It Takes a Village (The Solutions)

Our first post lamented the poor response rates in research on evaluation. There are many reasons for these poor response rates, but there are also many things that we can do to improve response rates and subsequently improve the state of research on evaluation.

How can evaluators improve response rates?

Coryn et. al (2016) suggests that evaluators find research on evaluation important. However, the response rates to these projects would suggest otherwise. As with any area of opportunity, there is often several components that influence success. Yes, evaluators should naturally care more about propelling our field forward, but the ability to change that without amending our practices as researchers seems unlikely. Therefore, we believe that the importance of participation must be built and to do we need to focus on what evaluators see as valuable research. Researchers must also take care to carry-out research with sound methodologies. Some recommendations for improving response rates as evaluators include:

1. Conducting research that is relevant to the field of evaluation while maintaining a high standard of rigor. You can increase the likelihood of this by...
   1. Piloting your study (grad students and colleagues are great for this!)
   2. Asking for feedback from a critical friend
   3. Having evaluation practice guide or inform the research questions
2. Reduce the cognitive load on participants by making our surveys shorter and easier to complete. You can do this by tying your questions to your research questions. It’s fun to have lots of data but it is even better to have meaningful data (i.e. stop asking unnecessary questions).
3. Apply Dillman’s Tailored Design method. This includes things like:
   1. Increasing the benefits of participation, such as by asking for help from participants or providing incentives for participation
   2. Decreasing the costs of participation, such as by ensuring no requests are personal or sensitive in nature and that it is convenient for participants to respond

What can the AEA Research Request Task Force do?

The AEA Research Request Task Force is also a crucial component of this process, acting not only as a gatekeeper to the listserv, but also as quality and relevance control. Currently, samples of usually 1,000-2,000 evaluators are sent out for every research request. If we could increase the response rate, we could decrease our random sample and decrease the load on the AEA membership. Some recommendations for new policies for the task force include:

1. Policies that would satisfy Dillman’s Tailored Design Method, including allowing:
   1. Personalized contact (e.g., providing names to researchers)
   2. Repeated contact to participants
   3. Contact via postal or telephone
2. Consider sending out survey requests themselves to improve the legitimacy of survey requests and reduce confidentiality concerns
3. Have more stringent rigor and relevancy standards to decrease the likelihood that participating evaluators get frustrated over the surveys that sent out and subsequently opt out of future research

Conclusions

We believe that evaluators should care more about the importance of research on evaluation and that it should be more visible in the field so that practitioners know about it and how it can improve their practices. However, it is our responsibility to improve our field by being good research participants. So please, if you ever receive a request to participate in a research on evaluation study, please do so. You are helping our field of evaluation.

This post was written in collaboration with Deven Wisner. By day, Deven manages human capital and business analytics for Global Registration Services, Inc., a legal services company in Tucson, AZ. By night, Deven is a consultant focused on data- and research-based decision making. He is a proud member of the American Evaluation Association and Board Member of the Arizona Evaluation Network.