NLA Discussion: Measuring outcomes and/or impact

[COMINGJO at HUGSE1.HARVARD.EDU]

Responding to Taylor Willingham's question:

What does it say about impact on the "larger world."  I believe this is a
difficult and complicated research question that can only be answered on a
small (but statistically valid) sample of our learners.  Learner identified
goals is a way for a program to organize the provision of service, and improve
that service.  It can also show that the program is producing an outcome. 
A research approach on a sample of those learners can find out if a program
that helps learners achieve their own goals has an impact on, for example,
income, children's school performance, health, or community participation. 
These are two process that are linked but use different methodologies.

As an analogy.  We measure children's participation in K-12 and young adults
participation in college by tests of the material covered in class.  But, there
are studies on subsamples of that population that show that more schooling
leads to more income, better health, more educated children, higher voting
rates, for example.

John Comings
COMINGJO at HUGSE1.HARVARD.EDU