Latest News

The Evaluators are Listening...

What's the point of giving feedback, anyway? Will my comments actually change anything? 

If you've interacted with the Tobacco Control Evaluation Center at any point, you've undoubtedly received requests for feedback— whether on a training, a webinar, or how satisfied you were with our technical assistance.

Get a Head Start with Data Collection Instruments

When you need to collect data, how do you know what’s important to ask? Do you brainstorm a list of questions? Or do you dust off an instrument your project has used in the past? If you wonder about that, the Tobacco Control Evaluation Center (TCEC) has an array of tools that can help!

It's Not Farewell, It's See You Later!

TCEC has been my family for almost 6 years, and I’m sad to announce that we're parting ways. I started at TCEC in 2017 as an undergraduate research assistant.  What began as a part-time gig doing data entry and file management evolved into more than what I could have ever imagined. Through these years, I graduated with a B.S. in Statistics, earned a Master's degree in Public Health, and stayed on as a full-time associate with TCEC.

How FERs are Scored

Evaluation report writing can be an intimidating task, especially when it comes to Final Evaluation Reports (FERs). Our website has many resources that can help with FER writing and hopefully ease some of that anxiety. However, after hearing from evaluators in the field, we wanted to answer some of the questions about how FERs are scored. So grab your favorite beverage, sit back, and read on as we share the process with you.

Does Your Data Spark Joy?

An often overlooked step in the process of analyzing results, data cleaning is vital to ensure the accuracy of your evaluation. After all, you put a lot of time and effort into developing your instrument, training your data collectors, and gathering a representative sample. You don't want all that hard work ruined by dirty data!

Your Evaluation Didn't Go as Planned— Now What?

We all have our workplans, and in an ideal world, we would complete all activities by the assigned due date without incident. However, we are all painfully aware that we do not live in a perfect world, and oftentimes things do not go according to plan. What do we do then? In this article, we explore some real-life situations in which things did not go according to plan and how some evaluators have handled it.

2022: Acknowledging Our Partners in Tobacco Control

While out on a walk after Thanksgiving, I was having a conversation with a friend. As we walked along, crunching the leaves and fallen acorns, we began talking about what we were thankful for. Our conversation touched on something subtle and perhaps overlooked; we talked about acknowledging and thanking those around us. 

FAQS on FERs

Every quarter, evaluators have an opportunity to connect with other evaluators in the Tobacco Evaluator Alliance. At the last meeting, some requested additional help on FER writing, so we got together with Yaneth from the Hispanic Coordinating Center to quickly offer a FER Q/A session.  These are the main takeaways from that session and an invitation to join us for the next one.

 

Surveys Unite!

Collaboration unites people, ideas, and surveys. Yes. You read that right. Surveys. Mono County’s Tobacco Education Program (TEP) has been working with their Local Oral Health Program to deliver a tobacco cessation survey to dental providers. Their collaboration is just one example of the many that already exist and are forming. I’ve had the privilege of interviewing Lauren Kemmeter, Project Director of Mono County’s TEP.

To get to know more about their collaboration, I wanted to understand who they are first.

Tobacco Control Evaluation in California: What You Need to Get Started

Entering the world of California tobacco control evaluation can be overwhelming. Due to decades of hard work, the world of California tobacco control is a vast network of collaborators and partners, with its own set of rules, acronyms and requirements.

But we have good news: Because of this well-established infrastructure, a new evaluator has a plethora of resources and support at their fingertips!

Evaluators: What to Know when Working with New Grantees

Like any new relationship, when an external evaluator takes on a new project, there will be an adjustment period as everyone gets to know each other. This may be especially true if the project is new to CTCP-funded work. Below are some considerations to consider to foster a successful partnership with them.

If possible, the evaluator and newly funded project should build more time into the contract for meetings with project staff. This may include meetings with project staff and their CTCP Project Coordinator (PC). There are multiple reasons why this is important: