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. 

Below are a series of compiled tipsheets that highlight some of the key resources in the library and aggregate them into useful groupings to help navigate through the evaluation content.

Basic Evaluation Tools and Resources
There are many resources available on the web to help people conduct program evaluation. It can be somewhat overwhelming to wade through them all. To make the process simpler, we have highlighted a few key documents. These items offer basic information and guidance for different aspects of conducting evaluation.  Download the .pdf tipsheet here.

Resources for Using Self-Assessment as a Learning and Evaluation Strategy
Self-assessment in beginning farmer programs can help improve learning outcomes for participants and serve programs as an evaluation tool. GREW offers several resources for learning more about, and utilizing, self-assessment in BFR programs.  Download the .pdf tipsheet here.

Surveys, Assessments and Other Tools for Evaluating Beginning Farmer Training Programs
The GREW Resource Library contains hundreds of resources focused on running effective and thorough beginning farmer and rancher program evaluations. More than 75 new resources have been added to the library and more than 40 of these resources are examples of survey tools, reports, assessments and logic models done by peer organizations serving beginning farmers and ranchers.  Download the .pdf tipsheet here.

Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Evaluation Resources

Twelve new articles, webinars, and websites have been added to our Online Evaluation Resource Library that feature information related to incorporating equity, inclusion, and diversity into evaluation work. In this document we highlight three examples from our library as a starting point for your explorations.  Download the .pdf tipsheet here.

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.

San Juan Ranch - Skills Checklists

Source: San Juan Ranch

These skills sheets are used at San Juan Ranch to conduct periodic skills assessments with their interns and apprentices to assess learning and mastery of the various skills taught on the ranch.  These are used in conversation with each apprentice to assess and celebrate learning and identify areas for further improvement.

Six Tips for Writing Your BFRDP Proposal Evaluation Plan

Source: Six Tips for Writing Your BFRDP Proposal Evaluation Plan

The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program has released its RFA for the 2021/22 submissions. The GREW Project, a BFRDP funded project to support organizations to do evaluation, compiled ideas for developing your proposals. Included are key points to think about when working on your evaluation plan.

Southern Region Evaluation Resources

Source: University of Kentucky

Links to evaluation resources for extention programs - University of Kentucky - Agriculture, Food and Environment

Staff Reflection Survey – for Events and Workshops

Source: PASA

After a workshop or other training event, the lead staff who participated in the event would use this template to complete post-session survey. Event reflections can be aggregated and reviewed annually by the staff to identify trends, programmatic improvements, and topics for future programming.

Teaching New American Farmers: Best Practices

Source: Institute for Social and Economic Development (ISED Solutions, Inc.)

A best practices guide for training New American farmers including suggestions for collecting past experiences, peer training, field-trips, manipulatives, reflection, vocabulary, pre-teaching, and realia.

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The Evaluation Center

Source: Western Michigan University

This website offers numerous checklists to use when conducting evaluations to ensure needed steps are addressed. Examples include budget development, contract development, considerations for developing logic models, how to implement different types of evaluation approaches, evaluation design, interpreting evidence, reporting and using results, etc.

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