I work at a clinical research center that develops and tests academic and social interventions for youth with ADHD. While the project researchers usually conduct statistical analysis on the effectiveness of the interventions for the kids, my boss has tasked me with doing an evaluation examining parental and teacher satisfaction and feasibility. I am leaning toward a qualitative approach and interviewing parents and teachers involved with the program. Does anyone have additional thoughts, suggestions, or potential problems with this? I have never done this type of evaluation before, so I am hoping to get some feedback on this. Thanks!

Ask yourself, "what would be the result of parent satisfaction?". Your answer (assuming it's a valid one, like "parents follow recommendations for at least one year" or "parents provide at least one unsolicited positive recommendation to friends or family about the Center") tells you what to measure.

You can absolutely measure qualitative stuff. But the real question to ask is: how do we know if someone is satisfied? It can't be--"because they tell us." We've all seen people who say positive things in the restaurant ("oh, the service is fine") when the manager drops by and then never come back again. We care about satisfaction because of the result of it (people continue the program, they donate money, they said good things about us to other people, they don't pull out early, whatever).

Thanks for the feedback! I had not stopped to consider what satisfaction would look like in this particular program. But you are right, we want to know if people are satisfied because it increases treatment adherence and program completion. I will definitely implement this concept into the evaluation. Thanks again!

Okay, if what you ultimately want is to get treatment adherence and program completion, ask yourself some ways to measure? I'd expect that program completion is pretty straight forward (either they complete or they don't). Treatment adherence--now that's a bit more complex and I suspect very open for a qualitative assessment. For instance, you may have people who follow the "law" but not the "spirit." Others who follow it but also add other components that are contradictory or send mixed messages. Others who follow in fits and starts. I suspect that the issue of adherence (without knowing more about your treatment/program) is a very rich one for qualitative evaluation methods.