Documenting State Extension's Impact to Agriculture.

It is often difficult for those in Extension to truly know breadth of impact it has on the public. In a state like Kansas where all 105 counties have Extension faculty, it can be even more challenging to capture activities and measure the success of local-based programming. Kansas State University, in its commitment to evaluation and reinvention of its Extension system, founded the Office of Educational Innovation and Evaluation (OEIE) in 2000. OEIE was implemented to assist all Extension personnel with evaluation design, strategic planning, quantitative and qualitative methods, data analysis, survey design and database administration. One of the tools to help carry out evaluation and local program development was an electronic system called Program Evaluation And Reporting System (PEARS). PEARS streamlines data collection, evaluation, and reporting of evidence-based Extension education programs and interventions. In addition, this system acts as a repository to generate a summary of Extension’s state-wide impact to the public. In this presentation we will discuss the challenges, successes, and evolution of documenting and publicizing Extension’s impact to agriculture in Kansas and how the knowledge gained is now being adopted by other universities.