The drive for accountability in human services puts pressure on nonprofit agencies to develop performance measurement systems. But efforts to build capacity in this area have been hindered by the lack of instruments to evaluate the quality of proposed performance measurement systems. The Performance Accountability Quality Scale (PAQS) attempts to fill this gap. The instrument was field-tested on 191 program performance measurement systems developed by nonprofit agencies in Central Florida. Preliminary findings indicate that PAQS provides a structure for obtaining expert opinions based on a theory-driven model about the quality of a proposed measurement system in a not-for-profit agency. The instrument also is useful for assessing agency needs for technical assistance and for evaluating progress in the development of performance measurement systems. Further study is needed to test PAQS in other settings and to explore new areas of research in outcome evaluation.
人类服务领域对问责制的追求给非营利机构施加了压力,要求它们开发绩效评估系统。但是,在这方面建立能力的努力受到了评估拟议的绩效评估系统质量工具的缺乏的阻碍。性能问责质量量表(PAQS)试图填补这一空白。该工具在中佛罗里达地区的191个非营利机构开发的项目绩效测量系统上进行了现场测试。初步研究结果表明,PAQS提供了一个结构,可以基于理论驱动模型获取专家意见,评估非营利机构提出的测量系统的质量。该工具还可用于评估机构对技术援助的需求,并评估绩效测量系统开发中的进展。需要进一步研究在其他环境中测试PAQS,并探索结果评估领域的新研究方向。