CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN THE EVALUATION OF COMMUNITY-BASED SUBSTANCE-ABUSE PREVENTION COALITIONS - LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE NATIONAL EVALUATION OF THE COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM

In the course of developing the strategy and methods for the national evaluation of the Community Partnership Program, a number of conceptua l and methodological challenges were addressed. This paper discusses t he ''lessons learned'' in meeting these challenges. It is suggested th at the overarching evaluation challenge is the need for an expanded pe rspective, in terms of both the phenomena evaluated and the methodolog ies used. Other, more specific issues are discussed, including taxonom y development, expanded conceptual and analytic frameworks, the two-ti ered design, procedures for assessing Partnership dynamics, the ration ale for selecting outcome measures and target populations, and the str ategy for selecting comparison communities.