Data and Evaluation

Process measurement, performance measurement, and evaluation are tools used to monitor and evaluate the achievement of program goals, identify needed improvements to the Tribal Healing to Wellness Court and to the tribal court process, determine participant progress, and provide information to governing bodies, interested community groups, and funding sources.

– Tribal Key Component #8

Find more on Performance Measures Here

  • Data, Evaluation, and Outcomes: What You Should Collect and Why, Shannon Carey and Charlene Zil, NPC Research, Presentation at the NADCP Training Conference 2016.
    This PowerPoint presentation overviews the new standards on data and evaluation, what data you should collect, how to do a self-assessment, and how you can use evluation results. In particular, slides 40-56 outline the performance indicators as they fit in a logic model; slides 57 & 58 list specific data elements; and 66 & 67 specifically cover dissemination strategies.
     
  • Adult Drug Court Best Practice Standards Vol II, National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) (2015).
    This document includes Chapter X, a discussion of monitoring and evaluation that begins on page 59. There are also numerous references that start on page 71 and Appendix E (p79) lists examples of management information systems developed to assist in evaluating drug courts.
     
  • Local Drug Court Research, Bureau of Justice Assistance and the National Drug Court Institute (NDCI) (2006)
    This document gives a helpful overview of performance measurement and process evaluations in the adult drug court setting.
  • Drug Court Performance Measures, Program Evaluation and Cost Efficiency, National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Webpage.
    This webpage provides an overview of a logic model for adult drug courts that allows drug court teams to explore short-term and long-term outcomes.  It also describes the process for developing performance measures that are tied to your program goals, and provides details on program evaluation and cost analysis.
  • Local (State) Drug Court Research: Navigating Performance Measures and Process Evaluations, Cary Heck, Ph.D., National Drug Court Institute, Monograph Series 6, (2006).
    The purpose of this document is to promote quality research at all level for drug courts by providing a uniform and manageable data collection and evaluation strategy for local programs. The measures contained in this document can be used across the spectrum of drug court programs to allow local jurisdictions to answer questions from stakeholders and funding agencies, as well as promoting sounds management practices at the local court level.
     

Collecting Data

  • Buffalo Drug Court Database/MIS (Free) is a generic Management Information System (MIS) that mirrors the actual MIS system used by the Buffalo, NY Drug Court. The Buffalo DMIS-2003 is a simple, menu-driven system. On-screen forms mimic those typically used to record information on drug court clients from intake through to their termination or graduation. The DMIS contains built-in reports to summarize and print case file information such as a participant’s current status, outcomes and points earned at each drug court date, and total points to date.
     
  • Strength Based Digital Connections, LLC The Virtual File Case Management System for Tribal Courts (Cost)
    Strength Based Digital Technology offers desktop software that is a practice management system. This system goes beyond administrative functions and case management assistance. This software enables uniform practice protocols and vastly improved treatment effectiveness – treatment that focuses on client-engagement and client-motivation. This platform has a technical component – data linking – and a practice component — the use of linked data for case decision making.
     
  • Find more Data Collection Systems at Adult Drug Court Best Practice Standards Vol II, National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) (2015), page 79.


Data Collection Resources

  • Data Use Toolkit for Tribal Programs, American Indian Development Associates (2004).
    This guide is designed to help tribal programs: 1) Understand how data can be used to better define and describe the issues the program is dealing with; 2) describe the steps needed to collect data concerning a problem of interest; 3) create a database that can be used as part of a data management system; 4) describe different ways to represent data by using counts, percentages, and rates; and 5) identify ways to present data to make a point.
     
  • PowerPoint: “Action Research: Data Collection and Evaluation Strategies for Healing to Wellness Courts,” presented by Aaron Arnold, Center for Court Innovation, at the Sept. 2013 Healing to Wellness Court Enhancement Training. 
    This Power Point details the importance of collecting data, and provides strategies for conducting such a collection, and thereafter meaningfully using the data for evaluations and substantive improvement to the Healing to Wellness Court.


Evaluation

Sample Healing to Wellness Court Evaluations

  • Final Report: Participatory Evaluation of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate IASAP Demonstration Project; Jennie R. Joe, Jenny CHong, Robert young, Darlene Lopez, B.J. Jones, Gary Gaikowski (May 2008).
    This extensive evaluation details the status of the drug court program, including a program description and history of the program’s development; the scope and methodology of the evaluation; its findings based on surveys and interviews; analysis organized around the drug court program’s goals; as well as numerous exhibits to provide context. 

Publication: Evaluation of the Initial Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts (2005)

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) funded a process and outcome evaluation of the four initial Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts. All six parts of the final report from this 2005 NIJ study are now posted on the National Criminal Justice Reference Service:

Tribal Evaluation Workgroup

American Indian and Alaska Native communities face unique challenges when participating in program evaluation. Historically, Tribes have experienced intrusive research and judgmental evaluations that have caused great harm. In 2012, the Children’s Bureau (CB) convened a group of national experts to develop an approach that might improve evaluation in Tribal communities. Together, workgroup members created a shared vision for the future of Tribal child welfare evaluation and a guide (or roadmap) for developing culturally and scientifically rigorous evaluation.

In 2014, CB released the publication A Roadmap for Collaborative and Effective Evaluation in Tribal Communitiesand a pair of companion videos as part of its Child Welfare Evaluation Virtual Summit Series. The videos provide a brief overview of the roadmap and highlight the roles of key stakeholders in this new vision for evaluation with Tribal communities. CB also released a video of workgroup members presenting the roadmap at the 2013 Tribal Early Childhood Research Center Summer Institute. 

View the companion videos:

–        Creating a New Narrative: Collaborative and Effective Evaluation in Tribal Communities [Tribal Video 1]

–         Collaborative & Effective Evaluation in Tribal Communities: The Roles and Voices of Key Stakeholders [Tribal Video 2]

Watch the conference session: “Creating a Strategic Roadmap for Collaborative and Effective Evaluation in Tribal Communities: Panel Presentation at 2013 Tribal Early Childhood Research Center Summer Institute”

Other Reports

  • The Multi-State Adult Drug Court Evaluation, Shelli B. Rossman, M.A. and Janine M. Zweig, Ph.D. (2012).
    In 2011, this evaluation compared the longitudinal process, impact, and cost evaluation of 23 adult state drug courts. The evaluation sought answers to “do drug courts work?” and “for whom do drug courts work best?” Additionally, the comparison revealed several best practices and recommendations, including highlighting the importance of the role of the judge, sanctions and incentives, and case management.
     
  • Tribal Drug Court/Healing to Wellness Court Activity Update: Summary Information, December 2000.
    This report provides a brief snapshot of Healing to Wellness Courts operating in the field in 2000.
     
  • Tribal Drug Court/Healing to Wellness Court Activity Update: Summary Information, June 1999. 
    This report provides a brief snapshot of Healing to Wellness Courts operating in the field in 1999.
     
  • Research on Drug Courts: A Critical View, Steven Belenko, Ph.D., The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, May, 2001.
    This is a critical review of 37 published and unpublished evaluations of drug courts (including seven juvenile drug courts, one DUI court, and one family drug court) produced between 1999 and April 2001. Drug courts have achieved considerable local support and have provided intensive, long-term treatment services to offenders with long histories of drug use and criminal justice contacts, previous treatment failures, and high rates of health and social problems.
     
  • Predictors of Wellness and American Indians, Felicia S. Hodge and Karabi Nandy, 22(3) J. Health Care Poor Underserved 791-803 (2011)
    Wellness is an important American Indian (AI) concept, understood as being in balance with one’s body, mind, and environment. Wellness predictors are reported in this paper within the context of health. A cross-sectional randomized household survey of 457 AI adults at 13 rural health care sites in California was conducted. Measures included wellness perceptions, barriers, health status/ health conditions, spirituality, cultural connectivity, high-risk behaviors and abuse history. Statistical analysis obtained the best predictive model for wellness. Predictors of wellness were general health status perception, participation in AI cultural practices and suicide ideation. Significant differences in wellness status were observed depending on experience of adverse events in childhood and adulthood (neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse). Cultural connectivity (speaking tribal language, participating in AI practices, and feeling connected to community) was also associated with perceptions of wellness. Recommendations are for culturally-appropriate education and interventions emphasizing community and cultural connectivity for improving wellness status. 

State Evaluations

Learn more at Wellness Court Resources

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