The first step in creating good performance measures is to clearly define the program's goals, objectives, and activities. A GOAL is a broad statement of what the program hopes to accomplish or what changes it expects to produce. An OBJECTIVE is a specific and measurable condition that must be attained in order to accomplish a particular program goal. An ACTIVITY is a service or function carried out by the program (i.e., what the program does). The lack of clearly defined program goals, objectives, and/or activities makes it difficult to create appropriate performance measures, thereby making it difficult to properly assess a program's performance. For example, consider the following possible goals, objectives, and activities of an adult drug court.

GOAL:  Improve the life circumstance of drug-involved offenders

OBJECTIVES:

• Decrease substance abuse among program participants
• Improve employability of program participants
• Improve educational attainment of program participants
• Improve living conditions of program participants

ACTIVITIES:

• Provide substance abuse treatment to program participants
• Provide job/vocational training to program participants
• Provide GED classes to program participants
• Refer program participants to organizations that provide assistance with obtaining safe and affordable housing

There are two types of performance measures used in program evaluation. These are process and outcome measures. These measures are differentiated by their individual purposes.

Process Measures - Address program implementation. In other words, process measures are indicators of the volume of work or what the program actually did. These are also referred to as output measures. For example, the output of a drug enforcement taskforce may include the number of drug rings investigated or the number of drug arrests made.

Outcome Measures - Address program accomplishments and are directly tied to the objectives. For example, outcome measures of an anti-drug abuse program may include knowledge about drugs and alcohol, attitudes about drugs and alcohol, and involvement with drugs and alcohol. Outcome measures for a program designed to improve the case processing of a criminal court may include the number of cases processed in a certain period of time or the number of days between charges being filed and final disposition of a case.

Performance measures permit the systematic assessment of the degree of success a program has had in achieving its stated objectives and activities. Good performance measures have the following characteristics:

Creating a performance measure that meets every one of these criteria perfectly may be difficult; however, these criteria should at least be considered when selecting performance measures.

1. Objective - free from bias or without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations
   For example: One method of assessing learning may be to survey the attendees of training to ask them how much they learned at the training. A more objective approach would be to administer a pre- and post-test asking a series of questions on the topics addressed in the training (e.g., what is the correct definition of an 'objective'? What are the two different types of performance measures?) and to compare the scores. This change in scores provides objective information on how much was learned.
    
2. Relevant - applicable to the objectives and activities
   For example: If the program's activities are intended to reduce recidivism by improving the skills of program participants, there should be a measure that captures changes in these skills.
    
3. Clear - unambiguous and easy to understand
   For example: If the measure requires calculations or interpretation, it should include instructions on how these calculations are to be performed or how something should be interpreted or defined.
    
4. Reliable - yields consistent, stable, and uniform results over repeated measurements
   For example: If a scale is used to measure attitudes, it should yield consistent results over time (assuming that what is being measured has not changed).
    
5. Valid - accurately measures what it is supposed to measure
   For example: Research has shown that people have difficulty accurately recalling details of arrest history if events occurred several months ago or if the history is extensive. For a measure that includes the date of arrest, an official arrest report is likely a more valid data source than self-reported criminal histories.
    
6. Practical - the knowledge, time, personnel, and ability to implement are available
   For example: If the measure requires Department of Corrections data, those responsible for reporting should have access to these data and the ability to gather and report these data.
    
7. Allows for gradation of success
   For example: It is common for participants of substance abuse treatment to relapse. Rather than simply counting those who successfully complete treatment or those who relapse, it may be more useful to measure something that allows for gradations of success, such as number of relapses or number of dirty urines.
    
8. Appropriate for the clients of the program
   For example: If a program serves children, the measure should use language children will understand.
    
9. Verifiable - the reported information can be confirmed
   For example: The number of reported convictions is verifiable because court records can be used to ensure that the reported data are correct.

An important aspect of creating performance measures is to ensure that these measures include adequate descriptions and are directly related to the objectives (if an outcome measure) or activity (if a process measure). A description is a definition of what and how the elements of a measure should be interpreted.

It is important to distinguish a performance measure from an objective. Common elements of an objective include: 1) direction of desired change (e.g., increase, decrease, assess), 2) target (i.e., the amount of desired change), and 3) timeframe for accomplishment. Depending on the nature of the objective, it may or may not include a target.

A performance measure should include clear information including definitions of key terms baseline data (status before program implementation) as well as when and how to report the data. If a calculation is necessary, instructions and examples should be provided.

Below are two examples of performance measures.

EXAMPLE 1

Terms for Objectives (place cursor over each term to see the element):

• Timeframe
• Target

Terms for Performance Measures (place cursor over each term to see the element):

• Definition of baseline
• Definition of key term

Objective: Assess all program participants for criminogenic needs within a month of starting the program.

EXAMPLE 2

Terms for Objectives (place cursor over each term to see the element):

• Timeframe
• Direction

Terms for Performance Measures (place cursor over each term to see the element):

• Definition of baseline
• Definition of key term

Objective: Increase the percent of eligible program participants who earned GED prior to release.

When developing performance measures it is important to have a thorough understanding of a program's overall goals, objectives, and activities. This knowledge will help ensure that the developed performance measures can be used to capture data related to activities that are carried out in order to meet the specific objectives and, ultimately, the program's overall goal. Below are several examples and a link to a blank worksheet that can be downloaded and used to link objectives and activities to the program goal and to identify potential performance measures, required data, data sources, and timeframes.

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

When evaluating a program's performance you are essentially assessing the degree to which the program has accomplished its goals. To make this determination it is important to develop well-crafted performance measures and to plan for the collection of the related performance data. Use this worksheet to ensure that your performance measures are linked to your program's goals and to ensure that you are prepared to collect all of the necessary data. Complete this worksheet for each objective.