NPI Impact Outcome Evaluation
Welcome to Impact Outcome Evaluation
Impact Outcome Evaluation, or IOE, is an annual evaluation of Local Health Department's (LHD) school-based CalFresh Healthy Living interventions. To detect change in behavioral outcomes, LHDs are required to conduct pre- and post-surveys before and after all school and school-based after school program interventions that include at a minimum 3 or more session direct education with grades 4 through 12. IOE is required of all local health departments conducting this minimum intervention in the school setting.
What's the purpose?
IOE allows us to:
- Locally, determine the effectiveness of your unique school-based interventions and support a continuous cycle of program improvement,
- and statewide, aggregate data from the collective school-based CalFresh Healthy Living efforts to show the efficacy of our programs to our funder, determine the most effective intervention components and combinations, and contribute to the evidence-base.
To learn more, see the IOE Purpose, Timeline & Logic Model .
What tool do we use?
Using the validated Eating and Activity Tool for Students (EATS) you will measure eating and physical activity behaviors by surveying students receiving CalFresh Healthy Living interventions at the beginning and end of the school year. The evidence indicates interventions comprised of more than direct education (i.e., combinations of education types and policy, systems, and environment changes) are most effective than education alone. As such, while pre- and post-surveys should always occur before and after direct education, they must also occur as close to the beginning and end of the school year as possible to capture the effects of the broader intervention. To learn more, see the Eating and Activity Tool for Students.
When does this take place?
IOE begins with engagement of schools and conceptualization of intervention and evaluation activities in the spring and summer months prior to new school year implementation. Planning Worksheets should be turned in before any evaluation activities occur. Pre-testing in intervention schools should occur as close to the start of the school year as possible. All schools should pre-test before any intervention activities (DE, IE, or PSE) occur and conclude before the winter school holidays begin, but ideally, by end of October. Post-testing should occur after all DE has been delivered and no earlier than the first Tuesday in April. All surveys and updated Planning Worksheets are due by June 30th annually. To learn more, see the IOE Annual Timeline.
What happens to our data?
Data from all LHDs are analyzed by NPI at the statewide (CDPH) level and reported in N-PEARS. They are also provided to CDSS to aggregate with data from other SIAs. All LHDs collecting matched data will receive matched, cleaned interactive datasets. If sample size allows (≥ 30 matched pairs per school), LHDs can use results generated from the interactive dataset to populate Canva infographic templates provided by NPI. New datasets can be found in your LHD Evaluation OneDrive folder around August of each year. To learn more about our statewide findings, see the FFY 24 IOE Statewide Infographic.