Logic Model Guidance and Template

What is a Logic Model?

A Logic Model is a road map for thinking through how to create a desired change or outcome. Creating such a model requires a top-level articulation of the inputs and actions required for a program to produce results, and an adherence to a consistent internal logic regarding how the design of a program relates to its goals. For any tutoring program, a Logic Model should explain how the model itself, the supports, and the stakeholders will interact to produce the results that you aim to achieve for students. A thoughtfully executed model can be an invaluable tool in fleshing out hypothesized causal relationships among inputs, actions, outcomes and impact. 

Why should you articulate a Logic Model?

While it may seem like unnecessary work, a fully fleshed-out Logic Model provides many benefits:

  • Organizational Alignment: A Logic Model helps align your entire organization around a shared understanding of what you are trying to achieve and how to go about achieving it. A high level of clarity and detail in the Logic Model ensures that everyone knows what the organization is working towards and moves in the same direction.
  • Goal Setting and Progress Monitoring: A clear Logic Model allows you to set goals for program impact and easily monitor if you are on- or off-track to reaching those goals. More importantly, the fleshed-out causal relationships can help explain why your program is on- or off-track and where to target improvement efforts.
  • Alignment with external stakeholders: A clear Logic Model allows you to easily provide concise explanations of your program’s design and intended impact to students, families, schools, and prospective funders. 
  • High impact investments: A clear Logic Model allows you to annually assess whether your investments are actually leading to impact. If you find that they are not, you can see where to adjust and improve.
  • Guidance for improvement, innovation, and expansion: A clear Logic Model helps you set up routines to regularly reflect on your program’s impact and improve it. It can also make innovation and expansion much smoother. When programs have a clear understanding of what drives their impact, they can make better decisions around innovation and growth.

Components of a Logic Model 

A Logic Model depicts the major, recurring aspects of an organization or program (rather than any one-time projects or tasks — like securing office space — which you are (hopefully) not doing year after year). There are five core components:

  • Needs: The areas in which a community does not have sufficient resources or capacity. The starting point of every program’s Logic Model is an explanation of the need for the proposed program. Needs are drawn from your Community Landscape Analysis
  • Inputs: The resources and conditions that need to be in place for the program to function. Types of inputs for a tutoring program could be students, tutors, classroom space, funding, a tutoring curriculum, etc. External constraints (like laws or safety regulations) are other kinds of external inputs that will shape the program’s design.
  • Actions: The specific steps you need to take to implement your program’s strategy. These should be major recurring processes that produce the program’s desired results. For example, actions of a tutoring program might include identifying and pre-testing students for tutoring, as well as recruiting, hiring, and training tutors.
  • Outputs: The immediate results of the actions that the program takes. Outputs are often quantifiable (e.g. the number of students who increased their GPA, the number of tutors trained, etc.), but do not alone define the program’s success. Rather, outputs help you understand the underlying reasons why certain actions achieved a specific result. 
  • Impact: The changes (short-term, intermediate, and long-term) your program aims to achieve. Impact includes all positive outcomes your program provides for its beneficiaries. Impact can be broken down into learning (not just knowledge gain, but also changes in perception and attitudes towards learning itself), skills (applied knowledge that accomplishes results, such as a student’s improved study habits), and conditions (e.g. pride and confidence).

Basic Example of a Logic Model

This is a basic example of a Logic Model for a tutoring program serving 9th grade students who enter high school below grade level. Logic Models can be significantly more complex, but even a simple one is helpful. Each tutoring program’s Logic Model will be unique based on the identified needs of its community and the exact impact it aims to achieve.

NEEDS INPUTS ACTIONS OUTPUTS IMPACT
What needs does the program address? What goes into the program? What actions does the program take? What happens as a result of those actions? What are the benefits of participating in the program?

Beneficiaries:

Students who enter the 9th grade below grade level in literacy and/or mathematics.

Community Needs:

  • Targeted academic support to address unfinished learning
  • Confidence in academic area

Financial:

  • Funding through grants
  • Funding through district contracts

Personnel:

  • Tutors
  • Tutor support staff

Materials:

  • Tutoring curriculum  

Supports:

  • Pre-service training
  • Ongoing tutor supervision and coaching

Direct Services:

  • Daily tutoring sessions between students and tutors
  • Goal Setting conversations with students, families and teachers
  • Inter-session review of student data and alignment with teachers

Evaluation:

  • Regular annual impact evaluation  

Supports:

  • High-quality training and ongoing coaching
  • Tutor satisfaction with their training and support
  • Average number of coaching sessions with tutors by program staff

Direct Services:

  • Strong execution of tutoring sessions aligned with curriculum criteria
  • Students master tutoring session content daily
  • Strong tutor-student relationships
  • Regular student attendance at the tutoring sessions
  • Average number of goal-setting conversations with stakeholders
  • Daily, productive communication between tutors and teachers  

Short Term:

  • Students have increases in test scores, GPA, and other academic achievement this year
  • Students report positive experiences throughout the program
  • Students gain a sense of self-efficacy
  • Students, families, teachers, and schools are satisfied with the tutoring program
  • Tutors are satisfied with their experience and encourage others to apply to become tutors with the program

Intermediate:

  • Students enroll in more rigorous coursework the following year
  • Students graduate high school at increased rates

Long Term:

  • Students matriculate at, succeed in, and graduate from college at increased rates  

A Note about the Beneficiaries 

In your Community Landscape Analysis, you will need to identify whom you plan to benefit and what their needs are. While it is a given that tutoring programs should directly improve the academic abilities of students who receive tutoring, the program may also outline other stakeholders who are direct beneficiaries of the program. For example, many tutoring programs aim to help not only their students, but also their tutors, who get a foot in the door to a career in education. If a program has articulated this goal, then in their intended impact (and throughout the Logic Model), you will see actions not only for improving student achievement but also for improving tutor desire and readiness to pursue that career path further. For example, impact data might include the percent of tutors who go on to enter a teacher certification program. Additionally, some programs might see parents as beneficiaries. Impact data for parents could include the percent of parents who report that they have the strategies and tools to support their children with their academic work.

Template for Designing a Logic Model

NEEDS INPUTS ACTIONS OUTPUTS IMPACT
What needs does the program address? What goes into the program? What actions does the program take? What happens as a result of those actions? What are the benefits of participating in the program?

Beneficiaries:

 



 

Community Needs:

 

Financial:



 

 

Personnel:

 



 

Materials:

 

Supports:

 



 

Direct Services:

 



 

Evaluation:

Supports:

 



 

Direct Services:

 

Short Term:

 



 

Intermediate:

 



 

Long Term: