The Subtle and Salient Points of Program Evaluation

Abstract

Supported employment has recently emerged as a viable rehabilitation alternative for individuals with developmental and other severe disabilities. Funding agencies and program managers are struggling to develop procedures for measuring the overall quality of an individual supported employment program and to determine the relative emphasis that should be placed on supported employment among an array of sometimes competing rehabilitation alternatives. This article identifies key supported employment programmatic and policy issues that require the implementation of comprehensive evaluation efforts. In addition, the complexities involved in developing program evaluation strategies that will assess the strengths and weaknesses of individual supported employment programs are described and the major components of an evaluation system are illustrated.