One DHS People, Access and Culture · Evaluation plan worksheet
Plan how to learn from results
Develop an evaluation plan that connects an equity question with meaningful evidence and a practical next decision.
Practice note: Measuring whether equity work is working, without scoring people

YOUR EVALUATION PLAN
Privacy: These notes are not saved automatically. Copy or download what you want to keep before leaving. Use program-level examples and responsible roles; leave out names, private learning records, and confidential case details.
Use the guidance under each heading to write your own plan. Keep program-level examples and responsible roles; leave out names and confidential details.
The question and the need: What pattern, barrier, or decision do you want to understand? Whose experience will help define what matters?
Resources and activities: What capacity, support, or changes could address the need? Describe what will actually happen.
What the work will produce: Name the immediate products or completed activities. Keep these separate from evidence that circumstances improved.
The change you hope to see: Describe the change in a decision, process, service, or workplace pattern. Agree any targets and review timing with the people involved; do not invent them.
The starting point: What is known before the change? Identify the source and period, or record that a baseline still needs to be established.
Numbers and experiences: How will quantitative patterns and people’s accounts inform each other? Identify measures, questions, sources, and ways people can contribute.
Differences and privacy: Which differences could be important to examine? Agree denominators, minimum reporting groups, and suppression with the data owner. Avoid identifiable small groups and individual learning or assessment records.
What the evidence cannot show: Consider missing perspectives, incomplete data, other explanations, and whether a comparison supports a causal claim. Keep platform use separate from equity outcomes.
Responsible roles and next decisions: Which roles will gather evidence, interpret it with people affected, decide what to change, and share what was learned? Record open decisions rather than assumed commitments.
Return to what you learned: After reviewing evidence, what changed in your understanding? What would you keep, adjust, or investigate next?

READ THE PRACTICE NOTE
Measuring whether equity work is working, without scoring people — program page /library/pn-measurement-without-surveillance

One DHS People, Access and Culture