Does the information collection pose an undue burden on the sources?
Having accurate data sources for the evaluation is the most important factor. For example, it may be less costly or time consuming to obtain information about services from interviews with program staff, but staff may not provide as accurate information about services as case records could. When you interview staff, you are relying on their memories, but when you review case records, you should be able to obtain information about what actually did happen. If you choose to use case records to obtain evaluation information, however, you will need to make sure that staff are consistent in recording evaluation information in the records. Sometimes case record reviews can be difficult to use for evaluation purposes because they are incomplete or do not report either participant or service-related information in a consistent manner. Step 3: Select or develop data collection instruments There is a variety of types of data collection instruments, including: • uestionnaires or surveys (mail, in
