Formative evaluation in school-based health promotion investigations

This article is intended for behavioral and biomedical researchers who have become involved increasingly in health promotion research in social settings. It describes how researchers may more precisely plan and profit from employing formative evaluation, which is too frequently more casually undertaken than is summative evaluation. Formative evaluation includes responses from the student subjects of such programs and school administrative and instructional staff, as well as other elements unique to the school setting such as existing curricula and the logistics of time and space. In order to tailor such programs to the unique properties of the school setting, a continual feedback loop should be in place. Such loops can channel both quantitative and qualitative data to the researcher to assist in adapting projects to changing conditions during the course of their implementation. This article presents a case history of the application of formative evaluation drawn from a health promotion project conducted by the authors. It includes as background for this case history, definitions of formative evaluation and an analysis of its costs.