Product Description: Evaluation has become an important instrument for rational governance and is used in an increasing number of countries and policy fields. Recent developments at the global, national and local level are changing the conditions and functions of evaluation worldwide...read more

Product Description: An exploration of the ways in which research, power and politics interact in violently divided societies Over the past two decades, there has been an increase in the funding of research in and on violently divided societies. But how do we know whether research makes any difference to these societies—is the impact constructive or destructive? This book is the first  to systematically explore this question through a series of case studies written by those on the front lines of applied research...read more

Product Description: A volume in Evaluation and Society Series Editors, Jennifer C. Greene, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Stewart I. Donaldson, Claremont Graduate University This volume addresses a fundamental and highly debated issue in the evaluation field - the use of evaluation information for decision-making...read more

Product Description: Success in Evaluation takes a fundamentally different approach to the mainstream supply side discussion of evaluation quality, utilization, and learning. The contributors believe that a systematic focus on success will lead to increased awareness of evaluation and its findings, a more positive attitude, and a greater chance of actual evaluation use...read more

Product Description: Mixed Methods for Policy Research and Program Evaluation by Patricia Burch and Carolyn J. Heinrich equips students, researchers, and policymakers in the social sciences with the tools they need for applying mixed methods in policy research and program evaluation, from design, through data collection, and dissemination...read more

Product Description: Practitioners in need of timely results for program and policy planning—and students looking forrealistic research projects—will find solutions in Rapid Qualitative Inquiry (RQI), a team-based,applied research method designed to quickly develop an insider’s perspective on and preliminaryunderstanding of complicated “on-the-ground” situations...read more

Product Description: Evaluability assessment (EA) can lead to development of sound program theory, increased stakeholder involvement and empowerment, better understanding of program culture and context, enhanced collaboration and communication, process and findings use, and organizational learning and evaluation capacity building...read more

Product Description: In the groundbreaking text, Bridging the Gap Between Asset/Capacity Building and Needs Assessment, James W. Altschuld examines the synthesis of two antithetical ideas—needs assessment and asset/capacity building. At the heart of this approach is a focus on assessing the strengths and assets that communities have and demonstrating how to make those assets stronger...read more

Product Description: “ O objetivo deste livro é fornecer um guia acessível, abrangente e claro para a avaliação de impacto.Omaterial, desde a motivação da avaliação de impacto até as vantagens de diferentes metodologias,cálculos de poder estatístico e de custos, é explicado de forma muito clara e a cobertura éimpressionante...read more

This book provides a comprehensive yet accessible guide to running randomized impact evaluations of social programs. Drawing on the experience of researchers at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, which has run hundreds of such evaluations in dozens of countries throughout the world, it offers practical insights on how to use this powerful technique, especially in resource-poor environments. This step-by-step guide explains why and when randomized evaluations are useful, in what situations they should be used, and how to prioritize different evaluation opportunities. It shows how to design and analyze studies that answer important questions while respecting the constraints of those working on and benefiting from the program being evaluated. The book gives concrete tips on issues such as improving the quality of a study despite tight budget constraints, and demonstrates how the results of randomized impact evaluations can inform policy. With its self-contained modules, this one-of-a-kind guide is easy to navigate. It also includes invaluable references and a checklist of the common pitfalls to avoid. Provides the most up-to-date guide to running randomized evaluations of social programs, especially in developing countries Offers practical tips on how to complete high-quality studies in even the most challenging environments Self-contained modules allow for easy reference and flexible teaching and learning Comprehensive yet nontechnical

Product Description: By explaining the role of evaluation in modern societies and its historical development in the USA and Europe this book highlights the scientific roots of Evaluation and offers an overview of its fundamental theories and concepts...read more

The impetus for this volume lives in a rich and vibrant past. It is organized to honor one of the founders and most prolific contributors to the professional and transdiscipline of evaluation -- Professor Michael Scriven, and to illuminate the future of evaluation in society. Professor Scriven often shares stories of his meetings with Albert Einsten and the frame-breaking evaluation revolution he has led against the value free doctrine of the social sciences. Both his wide eyed graduate students and the more grizzled evaluation veterans in his professional development workshops quickly learn that Scriven is well traveled and has exchanged some of the boldest ideas and visions with the most brilliant thinkers of his time. Scriven insisted that the 2011 Stauffer Symposium and this volume be organized in that genre. He urged us to invite the most thoughtful and influential evaluation theorists and practitioners we could find to join him in a conversation about the future of evaluation in society. Scriven challenges us to examine the five great paradigm shifts that have revolutionized the foundations of evaluation, and that he believes will form the basis for a much brighter future for evaluation in society. Scriven's revolutionary ideas are followed and challenged by a group of thought leaders in evaluation who do not necessarily shared his views on evaluation, but who have earned his deepest respect and whose evaluation work he admires including Michael Quinn Patton, Ernest House, Daniel Stufflebeam, Robert Stake, Jennifer Greene, Karen Kirkhart, Melvin Mark, Rodney Hopson, and Christina Christie. However, despite his insistence that his colleagues stay focused on the future of evaluation, you will find that many have recounted their adventures, exchanges, and debates with him over the years, as well as pointed out the many contributions that he has made to the development of evaluation and to the improvement of society through his amazing portfolio of evaluation contributions. The Future of Evaluation in Society: A Tribute to Michael Scriven will be of great interest to evaluation scholars, practitioners, and students of evaluation. It will be appropriate for use in a wide range of evaluation courses including Introduction to Evaluation, Evaluation Theory, and Evaluation Practice courses.

Product Description: Now more than ever, policy evaluation is an important component in addressing the world’s economic crisis. Before it can do so, the discipline must adapt to changing economic and political environments. The contributors address a basic question: What impact do crises have on evaluation and how can evaluation contribute in times of turbulence? Examining the state of evaluation today, the volume’s editors cover a broad range of topics, including post-hoc evaluation; shifting economic paradigms; the World Bank Group’s response to the global economic crisis; challenges in evaluating financial literacy; evaluating counter-terrorism programs; evaluation in the context of humanitarian crises; and why civil society organizations in sub-Saharan Africa matter in evaluating poverty interventions...read more

Product Description: Complexity as a paradigm has been underutilized by social work, but this cutting-edge pocket guide makes a convincing argument for its use. Every agency worker has been faced with a deluge of records, making it difficult to grasp onto structures and trends undergirding behavior...read more

Product Description: "Catherine Simmons, PhD, LCSW "Drs. Simmons and Lehmann have given all of us in the helping professionsópractitioners and researchers alikeóa comprehensive resource for finding and selecting psychometrically sound, practical, strengths-based measures that we can use not only to 'look at the results' but to do so in a way that we 'measure others by their strengths...read more

Product Description:   Evaluation Cultures draws upon a sample of reflections, drawn from organizational practices, nationally centered political cultures, and ethnic cultures, as a framework for understanding how culture influences the work of evaluation...read more