Measuring the Implementation Fidelity of Student Affairs Programs: A Critical Component of the Outcomes Assessment Cycle

Jerusha J. Gerstner and Sara J. Finney   |   

Implementation fidelity assessment provides a means of measuring the alignment between the planned program and the implemented program. Unfortunately, the implemented program can differ from the planned program, resulting in ambiguous inferences about the planned program’s effectiveness (i.e., it is uncertain if poor results are due to an ineffective program or poor implementation). We demonstrate how inclusion of implementation fidelity in the outcomes assessment process increases the validity of inferences about program effectiveness and, ultimately, student learning. Although our didactic discussion of implementation fidelity focuses on its importance to assessing student affairs programming, the concepts and process are applicable to academic programs as well.

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