The Measurement Group

Improving outcomes in health, behavioral health & social services through applied social research

Learning from failure

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Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Learning from failure has been on my mind, both personally and professionally.

On the personal front, my son, a high school senior, wrote an essay for his college applications in response to one of the prompts in the Common Application:

“Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?”

Although the particular failure that my son wrote about was difficult for him to experience at the time, it was an important opportunity for learning and growth. With hindsight and some perspective, he was able to recognize and appreciate that.

The same can be said for failure as it occurs in community programs and how evaluation can help articulate the lessons learned from those failures. In program evaluation, documenting failure can be just as valuable as success – perhaps even more so. [Read more…]

Thoughts about quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods evaluation approaches

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ID-100134007What is mixed methods evaluation? Simply put, it refers to an evaluation design that combines both quantitative (numeric) and qualitative (descriptive) elements. In this blog post, I thought I’d share some thoughts about quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods evaluation approaches.

Although my professional training as a research psychologist originally emphasized the quantitative side of the field, I have come to appreciate that numbers don’t always tell the whole story of a program’s characteristics, outcomes, or impacts. A recent article in the Guardian described four common misconceptions about data that illustrate some of these issues and limitations: [Read more…]

Five fun facts about TMG

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Five fun facts about The Measurement Group (aka TMG):

  1.  Our founder, Dr. George Huba (@DrHubaEvaluator), started the company on a folding table in his living room — less than a mile from our current location in Culver City, California.
  2. Our first consulting project was a job analysis of protective services workers for San Diego county. That project continues to inform my work to this day.
  3. In addition to our program evaluation work, we have worked with publishers of psychological assessment tools to help them make user-friendly and psychometrically rigorous materials available to practitioners.
  4. TMG research assistants, who typically come to us as recent college graduates, have gone on to graduate study and successful careers in diverse fields such as public health, psychology, program evaluation, law, medicine, and business.
  5. Since 1988, we’ve worked with more than 400 health and social service programs in 38 states and 39 major metropolitan areas.

For more information, visit us at www.TheMeasurementGroup.com, like us on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, and connect with me on LinkedIn and on Google+.

Welcome to The Measurement Group Blog

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tmglogoWelcome to The Measurement Group blog! I’m Dr. Lisa Melchior, and I’d like to introduce you to the work we do and our approach to program evaluation.

I’ve worked in the field of program evaluation and applied social research for more than 25 years. I’m a licensed research psychologist specializing in the evaluation of health, mental health and social services. I enjoy using my professional training and expertise to help improve services, outcomes and quality of life for people who often fall through the cracks of our health and social service systems. I’ve published articles and presented to audiences about issues related to the evaluation of community-based services such as substance abuse prevention and treatment, mental health services, integrated and culturally specific models of care, wraparound services, and child abuse prevention. My work has focused on services for at-risk and vulnerable populations, including women, children and families, youth, older adults, recent immigrants, and people with disabilities — including those that stem from behavioral health conditions. In addition to my primary focus on program evaluation, I have expertise in screening and assessment tools and techniques used in various health, mental health, and social service settings.

At The Measurement Group, my colleagues and I provide evidence for stakeholders that their programs produce measurable, meaningful results. We work with our clients to design and implement useful, realistic and user-friendly evaluation studies that simultaneously maximize reliability, validity and utility while minimizing burden. Since 1988, we have evaluated more than 400 health and social service programs in 38 states and 39 major metropolitan areas. We work with programs that range from small community-based start-ups to large multi-site federally funded initiatives.

For more information, please visit us at www.TheMeasurementGroup.com, like us on Facebook, and find us on Google+. Follow me on Twitter for news about healthcare and social services research and evaluation and connect with me on LinkedIn.