ABSTRACT
An essential component of any sustained effort at systemic reform is a thorough evaluation that is carefully integrated into all aspects of the model. There are many reasons to conduct a program evaluation, but one of the most important is to determine whether school psychologists’ efforts are having the intended effects and whether this change is occurring to a meaningful degree. One of the difficulties of prevention research is that psychologists are trying to establish that their group’s efforts resulted in the absence of a negative outcome. The objectives of empowerment evaluation are to increase the probability of program success through providing stakeholders with the tools to assess the planning, implementation, and evaluation of their program, and to mainstream evaluation activities within the organization. Using their logic model, psychologists would expect to see decreases in certain behaviors over the short term, such as fewer playground disciplinary referrals.
