Because of the importance of measuring impact, evaluators and education planners have to resort
to baseline studies. These are studies which, using a range of methods to establish a starting point
for the programme, making it is possible to see if anything has changed as a result of the
programme.
This section suggests ways of obtaining baseline information and how to manage if this is not
possible.
This base or starting point is best established before a programme is implemented and certainly
before an evaluation is undertaken. It may be possible to recall how things were, but memory is
closely bound with present perceptions and future aspirations.
With luck, it might be discovered that a study done by someone else is contemporaneous with the
programme starting point. But, leaving it to chance or memory is not the best policy.
Difficulties of Measuring the Base
Studies operate on the assumption that they can determine what information is relevant and what is
likely to change as a result of the programme, and on the assumption that information can be
collected and analysed with sufficient speed, that it will not change before the programme is
implemented.
These are major assumptions. When the information is gross, it may be possible to do . A school
building programme can count the number of schools in existence, implement the programme, and
count again. A voter education programme being conducted in a society where people have not
voted before can be fairly confident about that fact and can measure voting performance during
the first election.
When there are a large number of factors affecting baseline information, establishing the baseline
is much more difficult and requires considerable research and analytical skills.
Nevertheless, developing even a ragged baseline as a working model is preferable to having no idea
where the programme is starting and how to tell whether it has made any impact at all.
Gathering Baseline Information
There are two ways in which baseline information can be obtained on a regular basis. When
neither of these ways is available, educators have to weigh the need for a baseline study when they
conduct their first programme.
It may be more cost effective to go into the field without a full understanding of the context and
without the ability to evaluate impact fully so that a second cycle can use the data obtained in the
first.
Periodic Elections
When elections are happening regularly, and where voter and civic education programmes have been institutionalised, it is possible to look back on an annual or periodic
basis. This becomes the baseline information for each successive programme, and as the amount
of information accumulates, it is possible to identify trends, compare results of programmes, and to
transfer lessons learned in one programme to another.
This can be done only if there is good record keeping from one election to another and if there is
continuity in the organisation (whether the electoral authority or a nongovernmental organisation)
conducting the educational programme.
Context Assessment Data
While an educational programme can be developed without undertaking a context analysis, this
will surely mean it is limited in scope or less effective in outcome. Conducting a context
assessment ensures that a great deal of the information considered necessary for a baseline study is
in place.
The programme will have at its disposal basic information about voters or citizens, survey or
anecdotal information about their educational needs, and certain basic geopolitical information
that, while primarily intended to facilitate the programme, can also be used by evaluators.
Indeed, the relationship between evaluation and context assessment is a symbiotic one. The
ultimate goal of a major educational programme is the cyclical continuity that enables much of the
setup work to become regular.
In this way, there is the possibility of constant programme improvement, as well as a research cycle
that maintains certain basic information about programme participants or target constituencies.
Unfortunately, many national education programmes do not repeat themselves at intervals regular
enough to achieve this. In countries that do not institutionalise civic and voter education, large-
scale programmes must constantly redo work and pay for it on each occasion.
If No Baseline Can be Established
It may not be possible to establish a reliable base. Evaluation can still happen, and even impact
studies can happen.
An evaluation can be designed with a series of cycles so that the same area or question is revisited
at periods during a programme. Or, evaluators can draw comparisons between similar areas, one
that has experienced the programme and one that has not.
There are a number of social study techniques that may work, and most evaluations operate in this
way. However, those who want to study the impact of an education programme over time should
work at establishing a significant baseline.
