The following materials are available from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
(NIAAA) by mail or through the NIAAA Web site (www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov):
Task Force Report
A Call to Action: Changing the Culture of Drinking at U.S. Colleges
Final Report of the Task Force on College Drinking
Panel Reports
High-Risk Drinking in College: What We Know and What We Need To Learn
Final Report of the Task Force on College Drinking’s
Panel on Contexts and Consequences
How To Reduce High-Risk College Drinking: Use Proven Strategies, Fill Research Gaps Final Report of the Task Force on College Drinking’s
Panel on Prevention and Treatment
Brochures
What Parents Need to Know About College Drinking
What Peer Educators and Resident Advisors (RAs) Need to Know About College Drinking
What Presidents Need to Know About College Drinking
Future Brochures
What Community Leaders Need to Know About College Drinking
What High School Guidance Counselors Need to Know About College Drinking
What Students Need to Know About College Drinking
Planning and Evaluation Handbook
Reducing Alcohol Problems on Campus: A Guide to Planning and Evaluation
U.S. Department of Education’s Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other
Drug Prevention
The Higher Education Center is the Nation’s primary resource to assist colleges and universities
as they develop, implement, and evaluate programs and policies to address alcohol and other drug
problems on campus. The Center provides assistance and information to help prevention program
planners assess campus needs, develop a strategic plan, and measure results.
Evaluation Links and Resources: This section provides a comprehensive list of evaluation
resources on a wide range of evaluation topics. It includes Center publications on evaluation,
online evaluation guides, comprehensive evaluation Web sites, needs assessment, evaluation
planning and design, and data collection.
Resources for Selecting and Working with a Program Evaluator. Listed here are resources
for prevention professionals to assist in choosing and working with an outside evaluator.
Higher Education Center’s Evaluator Database. The referral database allows users to search
for an evaluator or register themselves as an evaluator.
Environmental Measurement in Alcohol and Other (AOD) Drug Prevention: This section
provides presentations and other resources on methods for measuring environmental change efforts.
The following publications can be ordered or downloaded for free from the Higher Education
Center’s Web site (http://www.edc.org/hec/pubs):
Understanding Evaluation: The Way to Better Prevention Programs (HEC 905). (Note: Only
print copies are available; they can be ordered through the publications section of the Higher
Education Center’s Web site.) This handbook describes the “how and why” of program evaluation and
outlines the steps involved, working from the premise that many useful evaluations can be
conducted by program staff who may not have formal training in evaluation.
A College Case Study: A Supplement to Understanding Evaluation (HEC 904). In telling the
story of a fictitious college, this case study helps prevention specialists, administrators, and
others concerned with preventing AOD use on college campuses get a feel for what is involved in
setting up an evaluation of a college AOD prevention program and what can be gained from the
process.
College Alcohol Risk Assessment Guide: Environmental Approaches to Prevention (HEC 109).
This guide is designed to help college administrators identify factors within the campus
environment that contribute to alcohol-related problems. These factors are examined within the
context of the public health approach, which emphasizes how the environment shapes behavior.
Methods for identifying problems include scanning, analysis, response, and assessment. The
publication also contains scanning and analysis exercises and selected resources.
Methods for Assessing Student Use of Alcohol and Other Drugs (HEC 104). This guide offers
a straightforward method for gathering and interpreting student survey data on alcohol-related
problems based on the methodology used in a national college alcohol study conducted in 1993 by
the Harvard School of Public Health. It can easily be adapted for all college and university
campuses.
Selecting the Right Tool: A Compendium of Alcohol and Other Drug Assessment and Evaluation
Instruments for Use in Higher Education (HEC 114). This compendium covers the important issues
to consider when selecting data collection instruments and describes the leading instruments used
in the postsecondary AOD prevention field. (Sample instruments are included in the printed
document, but are not available on the Web site.)
How to Select a Program Evaluator (HEC 716). This 3-page flyer describes the role of
evaluation in program planning and implementation; skills, expertise, qualifications, and
experience to look for when seeking an evaluator; incentives for the evaluator; questions to ask
when considering an evaluator; and how to network to find the right evaluator.
Online Evaluation Guides
These guides provide information, advice, and step-by-step instructions for conducting program
evaluations. All can be accessed on the Web.
Basic Guide to Program Evaluation (http://www.mapnp.org/library/evaluatn/fnl_eval.htm).
This document provides guidance for planning and implementing an evaluation process. Specific
topics include getting information to make decisions about programs; basic ingredients of planning
program evaluation; evaluating program processes, goals, and outcomes; selecting methods;
analyzing and interpreting information; reporting evaluation results; and pitfalls to avoid.
Demonstrating Your Program’s Worth: A Primer on Evaluation (http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/dypw/01_Overview.htm).
This manual, created at the National Center for Injury Prevention Control at
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, describes how to conduct a simple
evaluation, how to hire an outside evaluator, and how to incorporate evaluation
activities into a prevention program.
Taking Stock: A Practical Guide to Evaluating Your Own Programs (http://www.horizon-research.com).
This manual was created by Horizon Research to help community-based organizations design and carry
out program evaluation. Topics include formative and summative evaluation, quantitative and
qualitative data, and tips for interpreting and reporting data.
The Web sites listed below contain multiple Web links and tools for program evaluation.
Additional evaluation Web sites can be found at the Higher Education Center’s Web site (http://www.edc.org/hec/eval/links.html).
American Evaluation Association (http://www.eval.org). The American Evaluation Association
is an international professional association of evaluators devoted to the application and
exploration of program evaluation, personnel evaluation, technology evaluation, and many other
forms of evaluation. Web site resources include publications, Web links, reports, surveys, topical
interest groups, and lists of electronic mailing lists related to evaluation, meetings, events,
and training. This may also be a source for identifying and recruiting evaluation specialists.
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) Decision Support System/PreventionDSS
(http://www.preventiondss.org). PreventionDSS is an online training and technical assistance
resource designed to guide substance abuse prevention practitioners through a 7-step planning and
evaluation process. While the focus is youth substance abuse in a community context, the site
contains extensive tools and resources that are transferable to higher education settings. Modules
include assessing needs, developing strategic plans, building a logic model, choosing promising
practices, and conducting evaluation.
The Evaluation Center (http://www.wmich.edu/evalctr). The Evaluation Center, located at
Western Michigan University, is a research and development unit that provides national and
international leadership for advancing the theory and practice of evaluation. The site includes
evaluation support services in the form of publications, resource links, project descriptions, a
searchable directory of evaluators, evaluation checklists, and a glossary of evaluation
terminology.
Research Methods Knowledge Base
This is a comprehensive Web-based textbook that addresses all of the topics
in a typical introductory undergraduate or graduate course in social research
methods. It covers the entire research process including: formulating research
questions, sampling, measurement, research design, data analysis, and report
writing.