Do not score “normality”
Eye contact, reduced stimming, quieter body movement or more conventional social presentation are not music-program success measures.
Public accountability
Count what the program actually changes.
A state program should be able to show whether more people can enter music, stay in music, access equipment, find usable rooms, learn, perform, create and move into independent community activity. Attendance alone is not enough—and “smiles” are not an outcome measure.
ACCESSrequests resolved / unresolved
REACHcounties / regions / rural participation
STAYcontinuity across seasons / graduation
CREATEbands formed / recordings / shows
MOVE ONindependent community participation
Separate service from research
Program operations can collect what is necessary to deliver and evaluate public services. Research designed to produce generalizable knowledge needs appropriate ethics, consent and institutional review as applicable.
Publish failures too
Waitlists, unresolved accommodation requests, cancelled events, equipment downtime, complaints and geographic gaps are management information, not embarrassment to hide.