Using a Structured Learning Process to Strengthen Two-Generation Service Delivery

This brief is the second of three briefs that aim to support future evaluations in the field of two-generation approaches. This second brief highlights the experiences of the four initiatives participating in NS2G to demonstrate how practitioners of other two-generation initiatives can use research techniques to strengthen the implementation of their initiative before evaluating program effectiveness.

This brief is intended for practitioners who provide two-generation services and seek to strengthen their initiative using formative evaluation, as well as their evaluation partners. Appendix A in this brief includes a tool designed to help practitioners (1) identify a key implementation challenge related to delivering services to achieve outcomes for children, primary caregivers, and families, and (2) develop solutions to address the challenge. See the Appendix section for a fillable PDF.

Together, initiative staff and TA liaisons engaged in three activities to build an understanding of successes, challenges, and opportunities to strengthen implementation:

1. Used a logic model to identify implementation challenges. Mapping out an initiative’s two-generation services in a logic model is a powerful way for initiatives to articulate intended outcomes and related services for families.
2. Sought input from practitioners at all levels of the initiative. Engaging a group of people with a variety of perspectives and expertise can help uncover areas for improvement, identify hidden assumptions, and surface biases and areas of marginalization or exclusion in initiative services.
3. Incorporated participant voice. Engaging program participants can be just as important as engaging staff during improvement efforts. Feedback from participants can help practitioners identify areas for improvement and barriers to accessing services.

Through these activities, the NS2G initiatives narrowed their focus to one clearly defined challenge related to the three discussion questions (listed below in the Methods section). Next, they brainstormed and prioritized strategies to address the challenge. With their TA providers, the initiative staff defined the priority solution strategy to address the challenge and developed a plan to test it.

Practitioners of two-generation initiatives and their evaluation partners could conduct similar activities to support their own formative evaluations of two-generation initiatives or other types of programs. Appendix A in this brief can help practitioners in two-generation initiatives articulate a plan and independently move toward innovative strategies.

To conduct their formative evaluations, the four NS2G sites defined the services and core components of their initiative, incorporated participant voice, identified barriers to participating in services, brainstormed strategies to address the challenges, and identified methods for testing whether the strategies strengthened the initiative.

To guide these activities, the NS2G sites and TA providers used a structured learning process called Learn, Innovate, Improve (LI²), which is a structured learning process for and an approach to program improvement that helps practitioners unpack program challenges, develop evidence-informed solutions, and use analytic methods to gather data to assess the success of a solution (Derr 2022). To help apply LI² with the sites participating in NS2G, the TA providers used discussion questions specific to two-generation models that were identified in earlier OPRE-sponsored research (Ross et al. 2018):

1. Are families (including primary caregivers and their children) as engaged as initiative staff and leaders expected? Why or why not?
2. To what extent are services for each generation and for the family as a whole offered with high fidelity and quality?
3. Are families’ experiences participating in two-generation services aligned with the expected pathway to improving outcomes?

Fung, Nickie, and Emily Sama-Miller. “Using a Structured Learning Process to Strengthen Two-Generation Service Delivery.” OPRE Report #2022-264. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2022.