Moving from Methods to Metrics

For over fifty years, the Washington Literacy Council (WLC) has empowered adults by teaching them to read, helping them work, raise families, and navigate the world. Despite its successes, the organization struggled to provide concrete data to quantify its impact. Under Executive Director Terry Algire’s leadership, WLC aimed to shift from anecdotal evidence to measurable outcomes.

With a mini-grant from the MARPAT Foundation, WLC collaborated with Onward Consulting to:

1 – Clarify the Audience, Approach, and Activities: Precisely define its target audience, educational strategies, and program activities.

2 – Develop a Logic Model: Align activities with specific outputs and outcomes.

3 – Create an Accountability Framework: Construct a framework to identify key demographic data and performance indicators for tracking progress.

Onward Consulting adopted a hands-on approach by:

1 – Engaging with Staff, Students, & Materials: Reviewing materials, meeting with staff and teachers, and attending classes.

2 – Developing Critical Questions: Collaborating with WLC to refine the target audience and metrics of impact.

3 – Drafting WLC’s First Logic Model: Co-creating a logic model that aligned goals, methods, and measures within an accountability framework.

The results were transformative:

• Target Audience: Successfully identified the student demographic that would benefit most from services.
• Documented Educational Gains: With a well-targeted audience, WLC documented improvements in student education levels.
• Increased Organizational Focus: The logic model helped WLC maintain focus, avoid mission creep, and use resources more effectively.

Terry Algire emphasized the impact: “The logic model keeps everyone focused and prevents mission creep. It significantly improves resource usage and effectiveness in helping our clients.”