Monitoring and Evaluation Checklist for K-12 Schools
- Purpose
- Intended Audience(s)
- How to use this checklist
- 1. Determine the scope of your monitoring and evaluation plan
- 2. Develop an evaluation design for your monitoring and evaluation plan
- 3. Identify key indicators and data sources
- 4. Determine how findings may be shared for timely decision making and transparency
Purpose
As K-12 schools reopen for in-person instruction, it is important to have systems in place for the monitoring and evaluation of COVID-19 mitigation strategies. Monitoring and evaluation provide practical information for making timely decisions, addressing community needs, and identifying best practices to promote the health, safety, and well-being of students, faculty, and staff.
Intended Audience(s)
State and local education and public health agencies, school and district administrators, and evaluation professionals, in collaboration, may use this checklist when planning for monitoring and evaluation of COVID-19 mitigation strategies implemented in K-12 schools.
The checklist contains fundamental information to support development of a useful and feasible monitoring and evaluation plan.
This checklist is not an exhaustive list, but rather includes key considerations that address how to:
- Determine the scope of a monitoring and evaluation plan
- Develop an evaluation design for the monitoring and evaluation plan
- Identify key indicators and data sources
- Determine how findings may be shared for timely decision-making and transparency
How to use this checklist
This checklist is intended to help the user adapt monitoring and evaluation approaches for local situations and the mitigation strategies that may be implemented in K-12 schools in each community. This checklist may be helpful in navigating available tools and resources, and in developing a high-quality, useful, and feasible monitoring and evaluation plan:
- Review the checklist in its entirety, and other resources for monitoring and evaluation of mitigation strategies in K-12 schools, before developing a tailored monitoring and evaluation framework for your local situation:
- Share the checklist with key partners, staff, and any individuals involved in planning and implementing the monitoring and evaluation plan
- Discuss each checkpoint to develop practical steps for the monitoring and evaluation needed to inform the successful implementation of the mitigation strategies on COVID-19 outcomes and other relevant outcomes
- Review CDC’s Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health and Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health: A Checklist of Steps and Standardspdf iconexternal icon
1. Determine the scope of your monitoring and evaluation plan
- Assess capacity and resources to conduct monitoring and evaluation in K-12 schools
- Identify the types of mitigation strategies being implemented in your school
- Resource: CDC’s Considerations for Schools
- Prioritize and focus the goals and objectives of your plan in collaboration with individuals involved implementing in the monitoring and evaluation plan
- Determine feasibility and resources for monitoring and evaluation and develop a budget, if applicable
- Determine which aspects of monitoring and evaluation of COVID-19 mitigation strategies implemented in K-12 schools are feasible, useful, and acceptable to your local situation and capacity. Developing a logic model may help focus your monitoring and evaluation
2. Develop an evaluation design for your monitoring and evaluation plan
- Select an evaluation design that fits your needs, capacity, and context and accurately answers evaluation questions
- Tailor evaluation questions from CDC’s Approach for Monitoring and Evaluation of COVID-19 Community Mitigation Strategies
- Decide what methods (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods) you will use for the evaluation, in collaboration with the Department of Education or local health department.
3. Identify key indicators and data sources
- Review considerations and example indicators and data sources
- Consider criteria to use and select indicators based on your evaluation design that will accurately answer your evaluation questions.
- Determine availability and access to existing data sources (e.g., public data sources, data obtained through data use agreement) and whether new data collections are needed and feasible
- If new data collections are needed, consider what is ethical, appropriate, and accessible for the respondents
- Resource: CDC’s Program Evaluation Resources for Adolescent and School Health (Data Collection & Analysis tab)
- Consider data that could be used for comparing indicators over time or comparing between populations with different characteristics (e.g., race, ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status, and others)
4. Determine how findings may be shared for timely decision making and transparency
- Identify appropriate data analysis to answer evaluation questions (e.g., comparison, thematic analysis)
- Determine what information is needed to support decision-making about mitigation strategies (e.g., expand or reduce mitigation, modify operations, or allocate resources)
- Consider the best way to organize and display findings to help stakeholders (e.g., parents, teachers, school administrators, local public health officials, and others) make sense of data
- Determine when data and findings should be used to inform timely decisions and actions
- Identify the best formats (e.g., dashboard, brief, fact sheet, situational awareness, and others) to share the findings and lessons learned with stakeholders (e.g., parents, teachers, school administrators, local public health officials, and others)
- Resources: CDC’s Framework for Program Evaluation Step 6: Ensure Use of Evaluation Findings and Share Lessons Learned, CDC’s Program Evaluation Resources for Adolescent and School Health (Share Results and Improve Program tab)
Please refer to CDC Evaluation Resources for a list of resources organized by topics.