ABSTRACT
The field of sex education was a "child", and programs were allowed to experiment, to learn, to grow. The field now appears to be emerging from a rather turbulent adolescence: a complicated and emotional period filled with idealism and one that was severely misunderstood (and criticized) by a sober public. This chapter introduces the terms and procedures of program evaluation in a manner to permit teachers to engage in intelligent conversation with program evaluators and sponsors alike. It provides a brief description of the logic behind each of the steps, concentrating on outcome evaluation. However, the focus of evaluation is somewhat different: it gives a knowledge test to program participants in order to grade the program's ability to convey knowledge, not to grade the participants' ability to absorb it. To find out if teenaged girls attending a rap session learned how to use contraceptive foam correctly.
