Focus Areas

Overview

Key Principles

Focus areas

Philosophies and Approaches

Eval Matrix

Additional Resources

Colorful Illustration of diverse people inside speech bubbles

Evaluation activities tend to address individual, interpersonal, and structural system levels. If your program or evaluation is focused on a specific system level, that focus can help guide decisions on which evaluation activities to prioritize.

The following tools were developed to help funders, evaluators, and practitioners to determine which activities to prioritize as well as which philosophies and approaches are most relevant for their context.

Click here to see all primary, secondary, and tertiary focus areas for each approach

Evaluation Approaches
and their Focus Areas

Approaches	Primary focus	Secondary focus	Tertiary focus
Culturally Competent Evaluation Leading with self-reflection and cultural competence
Culturally Responsive Evaluation Centering culture in evaluations by including community members and evaluators with direct lived experience
Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation Aiming for equity through culturally responsive approaches
Culturally Responsive Indigenous Evaluation Striving for sovereignty and self-determination
Empowerment Evaluation Empowering communities with tools used for self-determination
Equity-focused Evaluations Conceptualizing, conducting, and using evaluation in service of equity
Transformative Evaluation Fighting for human rights and social justice using mixed methods

Identify Your Primary Focus

Once you identify your primary focus, you can use this tool to identify the approach(es) that best align with your project.

Which of the three system levels do you need your evaluation to focus on? Take a look at the priority area and related evaluation activities for each level below. Which of these areas are a priority for your project? If you had to rank them, which would you rank first?

Individual Level:
• Evaluation activities consider diversity and inclusion of individual team members including engaging those most impacted by the program.
• Primary Area: Cultural competency

Interpersonal Level:
• Evaluation activities emphasize equitable processes such as attention to power
dynamics and inclusion of those most impacted.
• Primary Area: Elevating voices and relationships

Structural Level:
• Evaluation activities address structural factors including historical and cultural context, use of disaggregated data, and promoting equitable outcomes.
• Primary Area: Impact and long-term outcomes

Additional descriptions of system levels are provided in the graphic below.

Primary Focus Area

• Roll over each level for more information on the related evaluation activities specific to the system level.
• Click on each level to identify the specific philosophies and approaches with key strategies focused on that level.

INDIVIDUAL

Emphasizes diversity,
inclusion and cultural competence.

Primary area:
Evaluation activities related to diversity, inclusion and cultural competence.

INTERPERSONAL

Emphasizes the use of equitable processes.

Primary area:
Evaluation activities related to equitable processes.

STRUCTURAL

Focuses on equitable outcomes.

Primary area: Evaluation activities related to equitable outcomes.

Acknowledgements

© 2022 SLP4i and The Colorado Trust, authored by Katrina Bledsoe, Felisa Gonzales, and Blanca Guillen-Woods. This work is protected by copyright laws. No permission is required for its non-commercial use, provided that the authors are credited and cited.

For full citation use: Bledsoe, K., Gonzales, F., & Guillen-Woods, B*. (2022). The Eval Matrix™. Strategic Learning Partners for Innovation https://slp4i.com/the-eval-matrix.
*These authors contributed equally to this work with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and The Colorado Trust.

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