Synopses & Reviews
This is one of the most coherent and comprehensive theories of evaluation yet formulated and one that makes a most valuable contribution. The authors are pioneering in important new directions.
--Ernest R. House, author of Professional Evaluation and Evaluating with Validity
This book is the best I've ever read detailing a practical theory of evaluation. It is comprehensive, beautifully written, and makes sense of the evaluation enterprise. It does so by emphasizing the major function of evaluation as sense-making about policies and programs.
--Thomas D. Cook, professor, sociology, psychology, education, and public policy, Northwestern University
Programs that serve the needs of the public continually face changes brought by social, political, and economic forces. To survive these changes, organizations must evaluate their programs wisely and realistically. This book offers a new approach to evaluation, one that will encourage all kinds of organizations and agencies to improve their contributions to social betterment. The authors draw from three decades of evaluation practice and theory to present their own framework for conceptualizing evaluation and for pragmatically assessing social policies and programs.
They analyze four purposes of evaluation:
* To review the merit of programs and their value to society
* To improve the organization and its services
* To ensure program compliance with mandates
* To build knowledge and expertise for future programs
For the practitioner, these purposes help define the approach and methods for an evaluation. The authors also enrich their discussion with four possible modes of inquiry: description, classification, causal analysis, and values inquiry. Filled with tables, charts, and figures, this resource invites organizations to make the most appropriate programming decisions based on thoughtful and systematic methods. Evaluation: An Integrated Framework for Understanding, Guiding, and Improving Policies and Programs is a tool that scholars can use to rejuvenate their view of evaluation and that practitioners can use to integrate the best techniques with a contemporary understanding of social policy and change.
Review
"It is a text thoroughly worth the attention of anyone interested in the field of evaluation." (CharityChannel.com, August 4, 2003)
Review
"This is one of the most coherent and comprehensive theories of evaluation yet formulated and one that makes a most valuable contribution. The authors are pioneering in important new directions."
—Ernest R. House, author of Professional Evaluation and Evaluating with Validity
"Evaluators of many theoretical and practical persuasions can find a comfortable place for themselves within the big tent that is evaluation as assisted sensemaking. And, they need not worry that the tent will collapse. This tent has been constructed of sturdy materials, from a design that interweaves innovation with tradition, by builders with vision, talent, and commitment."
—Jennifer C. Greene, professor, educational psychology, University of Illinois
"This volume is essential reading for every evaluator and evaluation user, and would make an outstanding, readable, and provocative text for an evaluation method or strategies course. The book accomplishes the near impossible of presenting concrete, specific evaluation methods and tools while at the same time integrating them into a coherent, credible philosophical framework. I predict this volume will immediately become the 'thought leader' in the first decade of this new millennium, articulating the new consensus in evaluation perspectives."
—William Trochim, professor, Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University
"This book is the best I've ever read detailing a practical theory of evaluation. It is comprehensive, beautifully written, and makes sense of the evaluation enterprise. It does so by emphasizing the major function of evaluation as sense-making about policies and programs."
—Thomas D. Cook, professor, sociology, psychology, education, and public policy, Northwestern University
Synopsis
Presenting a new framework for understanding social policy and program evaluation, this practical guide gives evaluators in the field tools for gaining useful information efficiently and successfully.
Synopsis
Programs that serve the needs of the public continually face changes brought by social, political, and economic forces. To survive these changes, organizations must evaluate their programs wisely and realistically. This book offers a new approach to evaluation, one that will encourage all kinds of organizations and agencies to improve their contributions to social betterment. The authors draw from three decades of evaluation practice and theory to present their own framework for conceptualizing evaluation and for pragmatically assessing social policies and programs.
They analyze four purposes of evaluation:
- To review the merit of programs and their value to society
- To improve the organization and its services
- To ensure program compliance with mandates
- To build knowledge and expertise for future programs
For the practitioner, these purposes help define the approach and methods for an evaluation. The authors also enrich their discussion with four possible modes of inquiry: description, classification, causal analysis, and values inquiry. Filled with tables, charts, and figures, this resource invites organizations to make the most appropriate programming decisions based on thoughtful and systematic methods. Evaluation: An Integrated Framework for Understanding, Guiding, and Improving Policies and Programs is a tool that scholars can use to rejuvenate their view of evaluation and that practitioners can use to integrate the best techniques with a contemporary understanding of social policy and change.
About the Author
This title will be a health and wellness offering and will address society's interest in appearance and attaining a desirable weight.
Table of Contents
A Brief Overview of the Evaluation Enterprise.
A Framework for Describing and Planning Evaluations.
Social Betterment.
Realist Foundations for Sensemaking Through Evaluation.
Aligning Betterment, Purposes, Modes of Inquiry, and Methods for Sensemaking in a Realist World.
Evaluation Planning for Sensemaking in a Real(ist) World.
Methods for Description.
Classification.
Methods for Causal Analysis.
Values Inquiry.
Evaluation as Assisted Sensemaking: A Reprise.