Measuring Excellence in Extension

Critical conversation about public value

Extension Network Literacy
Listen in on a thought-provoking conversation about “The role of evaluation in determining the public value of Extension” with this eXtension Network Literacy Critical Conversation video. Participants are Nancy Franz (Iowa State University), Mary Arnold (Oregon State University), and Sarah Baughman (Virginia Tech), and the host is Bob Bertsch (North Dakota State University).

The participants make a number of interesting points about where Extension program evaluation has been and is headed. Several of my own take-aways from the video influenced my recent presentations at the 2013 AAEA Annual conference and the APLU meeting on Measuring Excellence in Extension. I’ve paraphrased three of those insights below.

==Nancy Franz: Extension should work toward changing the unit of program evaluation analysis from the individual to the system.

==Mary Arnold: Extension is still too often limiting evaluation to private value and isolated efforts. We need to move closer to systems-level evaluation.

==Sarah Baughman: We need to do more program evaluation for program improvement, not only evaluation for accountability.

Let’s talk about public value in Washington, DC

Next week I will be in Washington, DC, presenting on Extension’s public value at two venues. If you will be attending either of these meetings, I hope you will share your experiences with documenting public value impacts.

AAEA logo
First, on Tuesday, August 6, I will be on a panel at the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Annual Conference at the Marriott Wardman Park. The session, “Creating and Documenting Extension Programs with Public-Value Level Impacts,” is intended as a resource for AAEA members in their first few years of a partial or full Extension appointment at the university level. In addition to my presentation, “Tell Us About Your Extension Program’s Public-Value Level Impacts,” the panel features Kynda Curtis of Utah State University and Jo Ann Warner of Washington State University Extension. The panel is moderated by my UM colleague, Elton Mykerezi. Ours is concurrent session 2003 from 9:30 to 11:00.

Second, on Wednesday, August 6, I will meet at the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) offices with the Measuring Excellence in Extension Implementation Team. I’ll be presenting on how to effectively incorporate public value into impact statements.

At both of these meetings, I’ll be eager to hear about public value work and impact analysis taking place across the country.