Measuring the success of a community change effort is complicated. Changes in results and indicators take more time to be visible than the time frame of a typical evaluation. There are many factors that effect community change most of which are out of the control of the community leadership group working for change. Measuring interim indicators, of the change process, for example, is easier but less satisfactory. There are at least four ways of defining the success of Results Oriented Community Change (ROCC):

• Improvement in the indicator. Southeast Stockton decided to focus on the result of improved student performance. They chose one indicator that is associated in the research with improved student performance: parental involvement. The Neighborhood Stakeholders Group (NSG) is focusing its efforts on one school. One way to know if ROCC has been successful is to measure parental involvement in that school. It is possible that by just increasing parental involvement, student performance will improve, but it is also possible that it won't. So, an accurate measure of ROCC's efforts in Southeast Stockton is parental involvement, not student performance. It may take other actions in addition to parental involvement, such as improved teaching — to improve student performance.
• Achievement of other valuable outcomes. In addition to improvement in an indicator, ROCC has two other explicit goals: to build a self-sustaining network and to support the development of new leaders. The attainment of these outcomes can be easily measured. Other good interim measures include consistent attendance of a diverse group of community residents in meetings and their increased skill and capacity.
• Measurement of progress along the way. Progress can be measured in a number of areas: attendance at Project Design Team (PDT) and NSG meetings; the ability of staff to sustain movement through the Milestone Map™; the numbers of members of the NSG who move from the planning phase to the action phase; NSG satisfaction with the ROCC process and their sense of what they have learned.
• A compelling story. Sometimes a story is worth a thousand graphs. If community members can tell a compelling story of what their community is like, why they became involved, what their hopes and dreams are for their community, what they are committed to change, how they plan to change it, why they think it will work, why they are full of hope and energy, and ask for help from others, that is a very big sign of success.

We don't yet know if ROCC is a success in Southeast Stockton, but data is being collected to track progress and plans are in place to collect data on the indicator and review data on the result.