Thanks for this! I’m really curious about your Rubrics Cube approach and would love to learn more!

Truly appreciate your AEA365 post! This is a topic of conversation that surfaces sometimes among my international family and friends. What’s in a name? A lot!
I echo all your sentiments, and underscore, “Names are not just a combination of sounds; they carry cultural and personal significance. They reflect our heritage, family history, and individuality.”

In reply to Jeff Kosovich.

I just wanted you to know you had support for this…and gave you my limited experience… I was just so glad to see this post on readability and its importance.

In reply to Sue Griffey.

Hi Sue,
Thanks for reading and for your note. It is certainly the case that a completely manual approach is going to be more effective and is likely to achieve specific grade-level targets. As I mentioned it wasn’t perfect at it and the calculated grade levels varied. However, at scale it isn’t always possible to dedicate the time to apply an in-depth manual process to a 10+ page report–this work had been on my to-do list for quite some time and I’m not sure when I would have had time to fully revise it without the help.

I tried this too, Jeff, a month ago for an assignment in Ann K. Emery’s Report Redesign course.

I compared my before-after changes to decrease reading level by 2 grades. Since I don’t write reports any more, I used a para from a post I wrote on LinkedIn for this (lowering the reading level) and did it by editing my para and then I decided to try a ChatGPT approach.

I posted this (w/a pic of before-after) in the course’s closed LinkedIn Group and this was my tl;dr:
-I can do a better job editing and revising the reading level downward, using Ann’s course guidance (3-grade decrease achieved ).
-Chat-GPT did a useful revision of my original, but it didn’t lower the reading level by 2 grades, only 1.

After the conference, AEA members will be saying, “I’m still not sure what a Hoosier is, but I like it.”

In reply to Karen.

Thank you. I find that process relatable and have also seen others do it. Fix the impact and then start with activities below and fill the gaps perhaps iteratively.

Dear Sonia:
Thank you and congratulations for reflecting in this post on the double role that we have as evaluators with a gender focus and feminist evaluators: 1) that of ensuring accountability and 2) that of advocacy; both with the intention of finding evaluative evidence that supports the transformations towards social equity and gender equality.

As an independent evaluator and as a feminist activist, I have been in this double role in the LAC region: I was coordinator of the RedWIM (LAC Women’s Network in Organizational Management) for several years and I am still a member of this network, and I have also been linked to the ReLAC (Latin American & Caribbean Monitoring and Evaluation Network) and the AEA (Feminist Evaluation TIG), so I can attest and am a promoter of the need to address these two fronts in all development evaluations, especially those of the UNSDG.

I recognize in your article an advance in the reflection on the topic of gender-responsive and feminist evaluations. I agree with the switch that you propose from gender-sensitive evaluations to gender practices in mainstream evaluations. This would also reinforce the practice of feminist evaluations and may release the tension of the “Advocacy vs. Objectivity” research paradigm that Yuan (Linda) Zhou analyzed in her post on AEA365 on October 16, 2019.

Best,
Fabiola Amariles Erazo
Learning for Impact, Corp.

Hello Mads,
My name is Matan BenYishay and I am the Director of Program Evaluation at Pine Street Inn in Boston, where we work to end homelessness. It is fascinating to learn about this upstream intervention, which we are always trying to promote, and about the role of evaluation in it. I would love to be in touch about your findings if you would be willing. My email is mbenyishay@pinestreetinn.org. Thank you for this story!

Impressive content! This is a valuable resource. Thanks for sharing!

Great article on rubrics! I thought I was the only one who noticed how helpful rubrics are in evaluation, especially when evaluating and monitoring efforts of social impact programs. The Progressive Outcomes Scale Logic Model approach in evaluation uses a rubric as well; thereby making it a lot easier to track progressive improvements as well as challenges towards impact rather than only focusing on an end result.

Thank you so much, Gerard. I have used rubrics in evaluation on a handful of occasions – and so agree in their strength amidst apples to orange comparisons. And second your assertion that they take time to develop and are best developed with many voices. Interestingly, I have also enlisted a couple of times on the ‘management consulting’ side of my practice (for nonprofit and public sectors policy makers). There I see a unique challenge in ensuring that users actually enlist their hard-crafted rubric when making a decision. Enlisting the rubric as part of a disciplined decision making. All that is to say, THANK YOU for this energizing and really helpful frame and resources on rubrics. I appreciate it. Best, Keri-Nicole

Thank you. One of the raging dilemmas while facilitating a Theory of change process is to decide whether to begin from the Goal and come down to activities or start from activities and go to the goal. You seem to have started from the activities. Do you have an opinion on which one is more effective?

I see the same phenomenon with left-wing academics who believe the false assertion that women make 20% less than men for doing the same job

This is such an important point for evaluators! In fact, I have shared this post with my entire team because it is so important that we folks in the ‘evidence business’ keep this in mind! Thank you for sharing it!

This is so useful. Thanks so much

Thank you for sharing your experiences. Great tips for presenting virtual posters!

Great to see you, Barbara, in the tip of the day. Enjoyed reading about your experiences in such important work, especially how you were learning in the field and applying it back to the theory you already knew. Beautiful picture, too!

In reply to Karyl Askew.

Oh thank you, so encouraging to hear that!!

In reply to Gill.

Hi Gill,
I’m so glad I had occasion to return to this post and read, much belatedly, your thoughts here. They are filled with powerful truths which, once acknowledge, cannot be ignored. This is how we transform, by adapting to little realizations. If we comment to seek these daily, we become made anew at a rate of change that will adapt us towards a world of collaboration, cooperation, consideration, care — all the c’s. And allow our increasing commitment to love through justice. We indeed are all traveling the road together, even when we are ideologically light years apart. Our job is to recognize we are just that interconnected and act on that realization.
I’m taking a pilot certificate course on social transformation and we were touching on decolonization, which led me here to grab the link and share with my colleagues who range from undergraduates, to graduate students, to interested community members, including a couple of colleagues, one of whom is also an evaluator. I’m grateful to have been reminded and encouraged by the comments I missed. Thank you!