New Futures rigorously assesses our effectiveness. We have a Self-Evaluation Team that meets monthly and is responsible for conducting, monitoring, and analyzing our evaluation tools and process as well as our results. Staff from all levels of the organization participates in the evaluation process, as does a statistics expert from the University of Washington. We have a logic model that connects our goals, outcomes, and indicators, and links them with our activities. Through our commitment to evaluation, we have been recognized as a model locally and nationally.

We utilize diverse methods for evaluating our effectiveness, including a standardized reading test and surveys. We have placed an emphasis on increasing our capacity to learn so we can change programs based on our results and also from the process of conducting the evaluation. To this end developed an internal web site to give our own staff real-time access to evaluation results, with the ability to both drill deeper into our data to look at individual kids and families, and the ability to look at our own data in many ways, to learn about what works. We have also created processes which facilitate staff members taking structured time to reflect on what is working and what is not working with their program, what is new, and what they will change going forward. We have begun to tell the story of our results, locally and nationally.

Interested in our evaluation work? Download a snapshot (PDF) of our most recent evaluation results. Or learn why evaluation is important and also challenging.