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This book guides evaluators in planning a comprehensive, yet practical, program evaluation—from start to design—within any context, in an accessible manner.
Your Guide to Getting a Useful Evaluation Evaluation is vital and beneficial to any nonprofit organization. An effective evaluation can help identify an organization's successes, share information with key audiences, and improve services. It can confirm that an organization is truly making a difference. This book is for: organization managers and decision makers, policymakers, funders, researchers, and students studying applied social service research. Benefits you'll get: describes what types of information to collect and what questions this information can answer; details the four phases of evaluation and the steps involved in each phase; and information on various types of research consultants and advice selecting one.
This is the eBook of the printed book and may not include any media, website access codes, or print supplements that may come packaged with the bound book. A highly esteemed and comprehensive overview of program evaluation that covers common approaches, models, and methods. As schools and other organizations increase their demand for information on program effectiveness and outcomes, it has become even more important for students to understand the prevalent approaches and models for evaluation, including approaches based on objectives and logic models, participative, and decision-making approaches. The new tenth edition of Program Evaluation not only covers these vital approaches but also teaches readers how to best mix and match elements of different approaches to conduct optimal evaluation studies for individual programs. Helping both students as well as professionals who are new to the field, this text provides practical guidelines for conducting evaluations, from identifying the questions that the evaluation should address, to determining how to collect and analyze evaluative information, to ascertaining how to provide evaluative information to others. Making extensive use of checklists, examples, and other study aides, Program Evaluation teaches students how to effectively determine the central purpose of their evaluation, thus making their evaluation more valid, more useful, and more efficient. The revised edition of the text includes new approaches to program evaluation, an expanded discussion of logic models, added information on mixed models, and, as always, updated coverage of the most current trends and controversial issues in evaluation.
Concentrates on the steps vital to program evaluation, including systematically identifying stakeholder needs, selecting evaluation options best suited to particular needs, and turning decisions into action.
Planning Programs for Adult Learners, Third Edition covers the development of adult education programs in clear, specific detail. This popular step-by-step guide contains information on every area of program planning for adult learners, from understanding the purpose of educational programs to obtaining suitable facilities to incorporating technology appropriately. For educators and practitioners for whom planning programs is a full-time responsibility or only a part of their jobs, as well as volunteers in a variety of organizations, will find this book to be an essential tool. Grounded in a variety of program planning models, the new edition includes: new refinements to the 11-component interactive model updated exercises and examples from new settings new material on the practical application of technology discussion of instructional and program evaluation a focus on critical managerial tasks a new chapter on exploring the foundational knowledge of program planning a new section on the ethical issues related to program planning
The Second Edition of Health Program Planning and Evaluation will help you to systematically develop, thoughtfully implement, and rigorously evaluate health programs across a variety of health disciplines. This thorough revision includes updated examples and references throughout, reflecting the major changes within the field. This outstanding resource prepares students and professionals to become savvy consumers of evaluation reports and prudent users of evaluation consultants. It presents practical tools and concepts in language suitable for both the practicing and novice health program planner and evaluator.
This engaging text takes an evenhanded approach to major theoretical paradigms in evaluation and builds a bridge from them to evaluation practice. Featuring helpful checklists, procedural steps, provocative questions that invite readers to explore their own theoretical assumptions, and practical exercises, the book provides concrete guidance for conducting large- and small-scale evaluations. Numerous sample studies—many with reflective commentary from the evaluators—reveal the process through which an evaluator incorporates a paradigm into an actual research project. The book shows how theory informs methodological choices (the specifics of planning, implementing, and using evaluations). It offers balanced coverage of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches. Useful pedagogical features include: *Examples of large- and small-scale evaluations from multiple disciplines. *Beginning-of-chapter reflection questions that set the stage for the material covered. *"Extending your thinking" questions and practical activities that help readers apply particular theoretical paradigms in their own evaluation projects. *Relevant Web links, including pathways to more details about sampling, data collection, and analysis. *Boxes offering a closer look at key evaluation concepts and additional studies. *Checklists for readers to determine if they have followed recommended practice. *A companion website with resources for further learning.
Need to make changes in your organization? Not sure how to go about it? A program evaluation makes a great start! Program Evaluation: A Step-By Step Guide provides practical tips for developing and implementing your own evaluations! Whether you want to improve an existing program, identify new program directions, or prove that you have met your stated goals, this book can help you do that. You will learn how to: * Write compelling questions * Collect, organize and analyze data and * Report the results This practical manual includes helpful tips to develop evaluations, tables illustrating evaluation approaches, evaluation planning and reporting templates AND resources if you want more information.
An updated guide to the core concepts of program evaluation This updated edition of Program Evaluation in Practice covers the core concepts of program evaluation and uses case studies to touch on real-world issues that arise when conducting an evaluation project. This important resource is filled with illustrative examples written in accessible terms and provides a wide variety of evaluation projects that can be used for discussion, analysis, and reflection. The book addresses foundations and theories of evaluation, tools and methods for collecting data, writing of reports, and the sharing of findings. The discussion questions and class activities at the end of each chapter are designed to help process the information in that chapter and to integrate the information from the other chapters, thus facilitating the learning process. As useful for students as it is for evaluators in training, Program Evaluation in Practice is a must-have text for those aspiring to be effective evaluators. Includes expanded discussion of basic theories and approaches to program evaluation Features a new chapter on objective-based evaluation and a new section on ethics in program evaluation Provides more detailed information and in-depth description for each case, including evaluation approaches, fresh references, new readings, and the new Joint Committee Standards for Evaluation
The second edition of Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation offers managers, analysts, consultants, and educators in government, nonprofit, and private institutions a valuable resource that outlines efficient and economical methods for assessing program results and identifying ways to improve program performance. The Handbook has been thoroughly revised. Many new chapters have been prepared for this edition, including chapters on logic modeling and on evaluation applications for small nonprofit organizations. The Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation is a comprehensive resource on evaluation, covering both in-depth program evaluations and performance monitoring. It presents evaluation methods that will be useful at all levels of government and in nonprofit organizations.
