Beginning Farmer Program Evaluation Resource Library
The Beginning Farmer Program Evaluation Resource Library is a compilation of materials to assist beginning farmer and rancher training programs to conduct evaluation.
This Resource Library was created as part of the Gaining Results through Evaluation Work (GREW) project, funded through a US Department of Agriculture Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) grant. This project supports the development of strong, effective and long-lasting farmer and rancher training programs so that beginning farmers enter the field of farming and establish successful farm businesses.
This library contains hundreds of resources focused on running effective and thorough program evaluations collected by the GREW team. Some resources focus explicitly on farming projects and others provide more general program evaluation instruction. You can use the topic of interest buttons below to search for the types of materials of interest or you can type a search directly “I’m looking for…” bar.
Please visit again – more resources will be added regularly.
If you have a resource you would like to see, have a resource you’d like to share, or have any feedback about the Resource Library, please contact nesfp@tufts.edu.
Source: Office of Assessment of Teaching and Learning, Washington State University
This document provides information on analyzing qualitative assessment data, touching upin purpose, context and audience, examining and organizing data, andinterpreting and reporting results.
Source: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
This set of 3 project-specific surveys has been used by Annie’s Project to assess how effectively its training has impacted the women BFRs who are part of its program.
Beginning farmer survey written by Agricultural Land Based Training Association (ALBA) to confidentially learn how farmers are doing after receiving one year of services from ALBA. Survey includes questions on experience with ALBA, growing practices, and business finances.
"With the increasing demand for accountability of Extension programming, Extension professionals need to apply rigorous evaluation designs. Randomized designs are useful to eliminate selection biases of program participants and to improve the accuracy of evaluation. However, randomized control designs are not practical to apply in Extension program evaluation. This article explains how to use the crossover design as a practical tool for evaluating Extension programs rigorously. This design can be used to evaluate any Extension program with two or more curricula presented to client groups in multiple counties."
"Farming successfully requires a comprehensive set of skills from production to marketing and financial management. Assessing a new farmer’s strengths and training needs can be tricky. Many organizations use a checklist internally, or on a one-on-one basis with new farmers, to determine that person’s status on the spectrum of skills and aptitudes necessary to run a successful farm business." This website provide several example assessment instruments.
"This Evaluation Capacity Diagnostic Tool is designed to help organizations assess their readiness to take on many types of evaluation activities. It captures information on organizational context and the evaluation experience of staff and can be used in various ways."