Now that you have collected and analyzed data it is time to develop recommendations and share your evaluation's findings. How you report these findings will influence the degree to which recommendations will be considered. It is therefore well worth the time and effort to think about how to best to share your evaluation’s findings.

Table of Contents

How do I develop conclusions and recommendations?
How should I report my results and conclusions?
How should I organize my report?
How do I use graphics to illustrate results?

How do I develop conclusions and recommendations?

You are likely to have generated ideas for conclusions and recommendations throughout the evaluation process. The following resources offer suggestions for finalizing these ideas based on the evidence you collected:

• Best Practices Guide to Program Evaluation for Aquatic Educators (.pdf)
  Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. (2006).
  Beginner Intermediate
  The section in Chapter 5 entitled, “Reach Coherent Conclusions from the Evidence,” discusses how to identify evidence that supports your conclusions and how to develop sound recommendations based on that information.
  

• Results and Recommendations
  Online Evaluation Resource Library (OERL)
  Intermediate Advanced
  This table describes the elements that should be included in the “Results and Recommendations” section of your evaluation report. For each element, criteria are provided to ensure that your recommendations are reported in a fair and high-quality manner.
  

How should I report my results and conclusions?

Reporting results involves communicating the findings of your evaluation in a manner that makes sense to your target audience(s). Although the typical way to disseminate results is through an evaluation report, there are other means that may be more accessible and useful to a particular stakeholder group. In addition to a formal evaluation report, consider providing one or more of the following opportunities:

• Oral briefing
• Newsletter article
  
• Website feature
• Popular press article
• Conference presentation
• Journal article
  
• MEERA

The target audience and your goals for communicating findings should determine how results are shared. The most common method, preparing an evaluation report, is discussed in greater depth below and can also be adapted for developing the other types of communications.

• Basics for Good Evaluation Reporting (.pdf)
  University of Wisconsin Extension
  Beginner
  This two-page PDF resource offers tips for tailoring evaluation reports to specific audiences. For example, it suggests that you have someone from your target audience review drafts of the report to help ensure it will be appropriate for that group.
  

• Evaluating Environmental Education (.pdf)
  Stokking et al. (1996). IUCN Commission on Education and Communication.
  Beginner Intermediate
  A table in “Step 12: Writing a Report on the Evaluation and the Results and Conclusions” identifies potential stakeholder groups, reasons for distributing reports to these groups and different formats for sharing results with these audiences. For example, it suggests that a summary of results should be shared with evaluation respondents, in gratitude for their participation.

• Community Toolbox
  University of Kansas
  Intermediate Advanced
  The section titled “How Do You Communicate Your Evaluation Findings?” presents a variety of relevant information and details. For example, it offers suggestions for how to share your evaluation's findings with reporters. If you think the evaluation results would be useful to wider audiences, such as the readers of a professional journal, this resource provides some points to consider for state, regional and national reporting. Far too many excellent program results go unreported to other professionals!
  

How should I organize my report?

Evaluation reports are often quite similar in what they include and how they are organized. The format and details, however, will vary depending on the audience and purpose of the report. The following resources should help you determine what to include in the report, and how best to organize its content.

• Reporting Evaluation Results of Extension Programs (.pdf)
  University of Florida, IFAS Extension
  Beginner Intermediate
  This five page PDF fact sheet offers a list and brief description of the elements that should be included in an evaluation report. It suggests that there should be a cover, title page and table of contents as well as purpose, methods, results and conclusion sections. For each of these, additional suggestions are offered. There are also sections with suggestions for presenting evaluation results orally and for sharing them with reporters.
  

• Developing Evaluation Reports
  National Science Foundation Directorate for Education and Human Resources
  Beginner Intermediate
  This resource identifies and describes the basic components of an evaluation report. It suggests that the following be covered 1) What the project was about, 2) What questions were addressed in the evaluation, 3) What outcomes were studied and why they were selected, 4) How those outcomes were measured and the quality of the measurement instruments, 5) Who was included in the study sample, 6) How the data were analyzed, 7) What you found, and, 8) What you have concluded.
  

• Evaluation Report Checklist (.xls)
  Miron, G. The Evaluation Center, Western Michigan University
  Advanced
  This resource consists of a detailed checklist of what to include in an evaluation report. Because the information is presented in an Excel spreadsheet, it can be used to delegate, coordinate, and monitor progress among report contributors.
• Alignment Table for Report Components
  Online Evaluation Resource Library (OERL)
  Intermediate Advanced
  This table describes the major sections of an evaluation report. For each section, the table provides a description of the content to be covered as well as criteria for ensuring that it is well-written.