Using the below proposed program evaluation design for a program at your current or previous work, internship, or volunteer site. How would you apply ethics concepts to this program evaluation? Be sure to reference the textbook and be specific about potential ethical risks in your program evaluation designs. What actions would you take to ensure you are upholding the principles of research ethics?
Proposed Program
Outcome evaluation investigates if participants in a program experience some changes. It also investigates if changes for participants are associated with an activity or a program. These evaluations examine to what extent, in what directions, and whether outcomes change for those participants in the program. Outcome evaluations can be quasi-experimental or experimental. Experimental evaluations assess the program’s overall impacts and allow drawing of the conclusions about effect and cause. Quasi-experimental evaluations assess outcomes for a single group over time or individual outcomes for individuals that receive services to a similar population, to a national data, or a comparison group.
I would conduct an outcome evaluation by:

1. Forming a working group through the identification of board members and key program staff to work in the group for the evaluation. The group will decide the evaluator type to be used, the project timeline, and the evaluation design. The working group will be small with about four members. The working group will also serve as a liaison between other volunteers and staff and the evaluation team.
2. Outcome evaluation- determining the evaluation audience that will use the information collected before proceeding to the outcome evaluation. The information that the audience is likely to want is also determined and how the audience will use the information.
3. Choosing the measured outcomes by developing a logic model for the program. The logic model will be the visual representation of the program’s work expectation and it shows the connections between the intended changes and the required resources. The evaluation team and the working group should look at the identified outcomes in the logic
4. Selecting an evaluation design that fits the research questions being considered. The design choice may be influenced by management and logistics of the design, evaluation’s priorities and funder requirements, the available financial resources, the available sample size, and the available staffing expertise.
5. Select the data collection method. Surveys or questionnaires; interviews; observations; document reviews; and tests and assessments are the main methods used to collect data for outcome evaluations.
6. Conduct a pilot test of the methods of data collection to determine whether the methods fit the population under consideration. The pilot test helps in understanding the period needed for the completion of the study materials, whether there is assistance needed in the items’ completion, the availability of the records, the time frame for information collection, and the appropriability of the instruments or procedures.
7. Gather the outcome evaluation data from study participants to create the foundation for analysis and help to refute or reaffirm the assumptions that have been made about the effectiveness of the program. The evaluation team considers; the time for the data collection, the scope of the place where data collection will take place, the individuals to collect the information, and the storage of the collected information.
8. Analyze and report the findings. The raw data is summarized and converted into a format that summarizes and synthesizes the information. Data analysis can involve the use of tables and spreadsheets that show participants’ changes descriptively. It may also involve percentages, sample numbers, and averages. Comprehensive comparisons of participants’ types by outcomes may be done for more in-depth analysis. Findings report may be done through; presenting the findings at conferences and meetings, publishing the report on the program website, or publishing articles in outcome-related journals