Marshall Kreuter on "Evaluate to adjust"

The word “evaluation” to state and local public health department practitioners in some cases and their constituents is sometimes frightening because it often means “I’m going to evaluate you and if you are not doing well I’m going to take your money away.” Some people perceive that. Larry Green and I view evaluation slightly differently. We certainly wanted to be held accountable. Absolutely, if I ‘m not doing it, here’s the evidence, let’s make the adjustment. But evaluation is in place to allow you to make the mid-course corrections that are inevitable and to minimize, if you do this well you’re going to hear, “well that’s an unanticipated effect. ” It actually anticipates that there are going to be these things that come up and it allows us to detect them, integrate them into the program and make the adjustment.