NEAFCS 2012 workshop presentation on evaluating financial education programs

1. Measuring Financial Education Success:
Evaluation Methods, Assessment Tools,
and Impact Statements
Barbara O’Neill, Ph.D, CFP®, CRPC®
Professor II, Rutgers University
oneill@aesop.rutgers.edu

2. Are You Evaluating Your Financial
Education Programs?
If You Are, How?

3. The Million Dollar “So What?” Question…
At the end of the day…did your financial education
program make a difference?
How do you know?

4. The Current State of Financial Education
Program Evaluation
• Current evaluation efforts are still far from satisfactory
• General lack of evaluation capacity
• Evaluation is often treated as an after-thought
• Outcomes (e.g., measures of changed behavior) are often confused with
program outputs (e.g., # of participants)
• References:
– Lyons: http://www.ipfp.k-
state.edu/documents/jpf/04/04/education.pdf
– Federal Reserve Bulletin:
http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/fedred88&div
=158&g_sent=1&collection=journals

5. We are in an “Accountability Era”
• What gets measured gets funded
• With evaluation results, you can
– assess impact of programs on learners
– see if you accomplished what you planned
– know if a program was “worth it”
– celebrate success and learn from failure
– make informed decisions to improve, hold, or fold programs
– promote your program and win public support

6. Introducing the Logic Model
• See http://www.uwex.edu/ces/pdande/evaluation/evallogicmodel.html
• Begins with the end in mind
• Explains what a program is and what it will accomplish
• Shows relationships between inputs, outputs, and outcomes

7. Building a Strong
Financial Education Program
INPUTS OUTPUTS OUTCOMES
Long-
Activities Participation Short Medium term
Program
investments
What What Who We What Results
We We Do Reach
Invest
SO WHAT??
What is the VALUE?

8. INPUTS
Staff
Money
Time
Volunteers
Partners
Equipment/Technology
Policies
Research

9. OUTPUTS
What We Do Who We Reach
ACTIVITIES PARTICIPATION
Assess needs and assets Participants
Design curriculum Clients
Educate students Customers
Conduct workshops Users
Facilitate learning groups Groups
Sponsor conferences
Work with the media Reactions - Satisfaction
Partner – collaborate

10. OUTCOMES
What Results for Individuals, Organizations, Communities..…
SHORT MEDIUM LONG-TERM
Learning Action Conditions
Awareness Behavior Human
Knowledge Practice Economic
Attitudes Decisions Civic
Skills Policies Environment
Opinion Social action
Aspirations
Motivation

11. Commonly Measured Items
That Are Not Outcomes
• Participant satisfaction
• Number of people taught
• Units of education completed
OUTCOMES
• Number of events held
• Time and money spent
• Level of effort

12. Impact Evaluation Data Collection Methods
• Surveys
– Post-evaluation only (short programs)
– Pre- and post-evaluation
– Follow-up (e.g., 3 months later)
• Focus groups
• Interviews
• Observations
• Tests of knowledge/ability
• RARE: Control groups and longitudinal studies

13. Typical Survey Questions
• General reactions to the program
• Changes in knowledge
• Changes in motivation, confidence, and abilities
• Intended changes in behavior
• Actual changes in behavior
• Future programming needs and preferences
• Demographics
• Qualitative/open-ended responses

14. Post-Then Pre Evaluation Method
• Often BETTER than traditional pre-test-post-test method
• First ask subjects about knowledge and/or behavior after
an educational intervention
• Then ask subjects about knowledge and/or behavior
before the educational intervention in the PAST TENSE
• Avoids pre-test sensitivity and response shift bias
– People often don’t know what they don’t know before an
educational intervention

15. Case Example: Humpty Dumpty
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again”

16. So Who/What Was Humpty Dumpty?
Probably
NOT what
you think!

17. Post-Then-Pre Evaluation Survey
• Why? Because people don’t know what they don’t know!
• Who knew what Humpty Dumpty really was?
• Five point rating scale
– 1 = Strongly Disagree
– 5 = Strongly Agree
• Post: After listening to Barb, I know the history of the
Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme
• Pre: Before listening to Barb, I knew the history of the
Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme

18. Post-Then-Pre Evaluation Surveys
• Also known as a “Retrospective Pre-Test”
• Helps identify changes in knowledge, attitudes, and
behavior

19. Another Post-Then-Pre Example
Big Advantage: Avoids the problem of learners under-
estimating what they don’t know before a program

20. NEFE Evaluation Toolkit
http://toolkit.nefe.org

21. Downloadable Evaluation Manual

22. Build Your Own Evaluations Online

23. Quantitative Evaluation Methods
• Cost-Benefit Analysis
– Program costs divided into reported economic benefits
– The larger the multiple, the better (e.g., 15:1 vs. 3:1)
– Example: $3,046,975 ÷ $120,000 = $25.39 (Money 2000)
– See http://www.joe.org/joe/1999august/tt3.php
• Return on Investment (ROI)
– Benefit-Cost
Cost x 100
– Example: $1.1 million - $200,000 = $900,000
$200,000 $200,000 x 100 = 4.5
– “Even after all program costs were subtracted, the program
generated $4.50 in net benefits for every $1 invested.”
– 450% ROI

24. More Qualitative Evaluation Methods
• Time Value of Money Analyses and/or Plain Math
– Conservative estimates: e.g., potential future savings
– Assume positive results for a small number of students
– Assume modest interest rates
– Best if supported with actual follow-up behavior change data
– Example: If just 100 of the 300 students who were reached
saved $10 per week, each would have saved $500 in a year
($50,000 total) which would be worth $28,000 in 30 years at
4% interest ($2.8 million total)
• Extrapolation From Published Cost Estimates
– Find a research-based data source related to program
– Example: money saved by weight loss, lower recidivism, etc.
– See http://www.joe.org/joe/2008february/tt4p.shtml

25. Qualitative Evaluation-
The Critical Incident Technique
• http://www.apa.org/pubs/databases/psycinfo/cit-
article.pdf (Flanagan)
• Qualitative research technique
• Using in NY Public Library staff training grant project
• Ask subjects to describe through interviews incidents that
they handled well or poorly (need not be spectacular events)
• Provides rich personal perspectives and good quotes
• Respondents like to tell stories and feel their experiences
are important

26. Creative Evaluation-Xtranormal Video
Scenario Knowledge Gain Assessment
• Creating an educational video is easy...
– Choose from hundreds of actors (avatars or stikz)
– Choose their voices and other sounds
– Choose their gestures
– Select your background
– Type or record your dialogue
• http://www.xtranormal.com/
Examples:
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/1364604
6/nypl-money-matters-identity-theft
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/1364598
3/nypl-money-matters-credit-debt-10

27. Social Media Evaluation Methods
• Impact STILL matters!!!
• eXtension Financial Security for All Community of Practice:
one of FIRST social media financial education evaluation
studies ever
• 2011 and 2012 America Saves Week (ASW) social media
project with a focused evaluation methodology
• Read more in 2011 Journal of NEAFCS (O’Neill et al.):
http://www.neafcs.org/assets/Journal/NEAFCS-2011-
Journal.pdf.

28. Triangulation (Multiple Methods)
Evaluation Approach
• Unique Twitter hashtag: #eXasw
– Save loose change. Saving $1 + change/day allows u 2 save $500/yr. Small changes=big savings!
For more info, http://bit.ly/ASaves #eXasw
– Do u track your spending? America Saves says 2 review monthly purchases & put $ into savings. For
more info, http://bit.ly/ASaves #eXasw
• Follow-up follower/friend survey
• Follow-up project participant survey
• bit.ly analytics to determine the number of clicks on
unique embedded links
• Pre- and post-ASW Twitter influence metrics

29. Monitoring Twitter Impact
http://klout.com

30. Monitoring Twitter Impact
http://www.peerindex.net

31. 2011 Follower/Friend Survey Comments
• “Keep up the good work,”
• “These tips are timely and beneficial. I appreciate the
effort to help us help ourselves,”
• “The tweets made me think about the ways we are
managing our money,”
• “I welcome any and all suggestions for increasing my
financial well-being.”
• One respondent complained about a lack of money to
save
• There was one solicitation by a commercial firm

32. One Last Step:
Share Your Program Evaluation Results
WHAT?
SO
WHAT?
NOW
WHAT?

33. Tips for “Telling Your Story”
• Use simple descriptive statistics (e.g., counts,
percentages, and averages)
• Don’t use jargon
• Don’t overstate your results (e.g., causality)
• Blend quantitative and qualitative data
• Clearly describe who the results represent (i.e.,
demographic characteristics of participants)
• Be honest about your program’s strengths and
weaknesses, while highlighting the positive

34. Impact Statements: Intentions
As a result of participating in this financial education
program, X% of participants reported that they…
• plan to do/use/adopt…
• are more knowledgeable about…
• are more confident in their ability to…
• are more likely than before to do/use/adopt…
• will do/use/adopt…
…a particular attitude, piece of information, or behavior.

35. Impact Statements: Actions
As a result of participating in this financial education
program, X% of participants reported that they…
• are now doing…
• did…
• used…
• increased their knowledge of…
• adopted…
• changed…
… a particular attitude, piece of information, or behavior.

36. Questions and Comments?
Barbara O'Neill, Ph.D., CFP®, CRPC
Extension Specialist in Financial Resource Management and
Professor II
Rutgers University
Phone: 848-932-9126
E-mail: oneill@aesop.rutgers.edu
Internet: http://njaes.rutgers.edu/money2000/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/moneytalk1