Performance Evaluation: Proven Approaches for Improving Program and Organizational Performance

KEY POINTS

• Data analysis helps evaluators identify patterns and fortify arguments used to support conclusions and recommendations.
• When you are dealing with soft data, carefully structured discussion plays an important role in analysis.
• The scale at which a given data set is measured plays a central role in selecting appropriate data analysis techniques.
• There are two types of statistics: descriptive and inferential. Descriptive statistics analyze a given data set, and inferential statistics help draw connections between a sample and the group from which the sample was drawn.
• While data analysis begins to reveal emergent themes and patterns, interpretation is necessary to attach meaning to such findings that will later lead to plausible conclusions ...