Upcoming Sessions

Program Overview

In all organizations, managers like you are under increasing pressure to prove their programs—and, by extension, their leadership—are effective. But what constitutes reliable and valid evidence of effectiveness and how can it be generated to assess a program’s effectiveness? What data should be collected? How should managers use it?

Leading Successful Programs: Using Evidence to Assess Effectiveness will challenge you to rethink your programs' goals and reassess how you gather, evaluate, and use data to determine their effectiveness. This program considers many types of evaluations—including design, process and impact—as well a wide range of methodologies. Special attention is paid to the use of data from evaluations and other types of evidence to help you provide better leadership and make more effective decisions about your programs.

Curriculum

illustration of schedule
Online program schedule

During this one-week executive program, you and your peers will be immersed in a highly engaging, evidence-based learning environment that features a range of interactive activities, including case studies, discussions, exercises, presentations, and readings. Whether attending on campus or online, the curriculum will provide you with an in-depth look at key aspects of understanding and implementing evidence-based strategies.

Together, in live interactive sessions with the entire global cohort, you will explore a framework for thinking about a range of evidence types and delve deeply into specific evidence generating strategies –experimental and quasi-experimental designs, implementation evaluation, predictive analytics – taking time to understand the strengths and limitations of each. You will work together as a group to pull these ideas together in the context of real-world limitations such as budgets, a lack of time, and political constraints.

The Leading Successful Programs curriculum will explore:

  • The big questions you need to ask about the effectiveness of programs in your organization
  • How to decide what data should be collected, and when
  • The kinds of evaluations and other forms of assessment you should conduct
  • The key methods to evaluate the impact of programs and when each should be used
  • How you should make decisions about which programs to assess
  • The role of randomized experiments in evaluating the impact of a program
  • How you can make sense of mixed method evaluations and then integrate quantitative and qualitative information to design and implement better programs

Learning Objectives

In its goal to help you understand how to measure and evaluate program effectiveness, this one-week executive program will equip all learners with:

  • A framework for thinking about various types of evidence—from benchmarking and performance measurement to impact evaluation—and their relationship to one another
  • Methods for analyzing administrative data to identify potential points for intervention to improve long-term goals
  • Tools to measure the effectiveness of your program as well as strategies for generating short- and longer-term assessments of the impact of your programs on participants
  • Tactics for integrating qualitative and quantitative data to assess a program's effectiveness
  • A deeper understanding of how to make decisions about the best way to spend your limited research budget

Application Information

View the draft program schedule for the on-campus/hybrid session.

Access a sample schedule for the online session. 

What Participants are Saying

The program provided me with the missing link in using evidence to get results.

PROGRAM ALUMNUS
Arrow Down

Hear from the Faculty Chair

Professor Dan Levy discusses Making Learning Memorable.

Faculty & Research

 

Julie Boatright Wilson Photo

Julie Boatright Wilson

Appointment
Harry S. Kahn Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, Emeritus

Mark Fagan Photo

Mark Fagan

Appointment
Lecturer in Public Policy

Dan Levy Photo

Dan Levy

Appointment
Senior Lecturer in Public Policy

 

 

Teddy Svoronos Photo

Teddy Svoronos

Appointment
Lecturer in Public Policy

Alumni Spotlight: Q&A with Colleen Rossignol

Colleen Rossignol, co-founder and director of The Village Link, recently joined us for a Q&A about her experience as a leader of a nonprofit and how she is using her lessons from Leading Successful Programs. Read her story.

Colleen Rossignol, Leading Successful Programs Alumna
Request More Information
Access brochure and receive more information about the program
Apply
Start your application and take the next step in your learning journey.