Contents
AN OVERVIEW OF PROGRAM EVALUATION1
What Is Program Evaluation? 3
A Brief History of Evaluation 8
The Defining Characteristics of Program Evaluation 16
Evaluation Research in Practice 21
Who Can Do Evaluations? 26
Summary 28
TAILORING EVALUATIONS 31
Program Outcomes 204
Identifying Relevant Outcomes 208
Measuring Program Outcomes 213
Monitoring Program Outcomes 222
Summary 231
ASSESSING PROGRAM IMPACT RANDOMIZED FIELD EXPERIMENTS 233
When Is an Impact Assessment Appropriate? 235
Key Concepts in Impact Assessment 236
What Aspects of the Evaluation Plan Must Be Tailored? 33
What Features of the Situation Should the Evaluation Plan Take Into Account? 34
The Nature of the EvaluatorStakeholder Relationship 48
Evaluation Questions and Evaluation Methods 52
Summary 61
IDENTIFYING ISSUES AND FORMULATING QUESTIONS 67
What Makes a Good Evaluation Question? 69
Determining the Specific Questions the Evaluation Should Answer 81
Collating Evaluation Questions and Setting Priorities96
Summary 97
ASSESSING THE NEED FOR A PROGRAM 101
The Role of Evaluators in Diagnosing Social Conditions and Service Needs 103
Defining the Problem to Be Addressed 105
When Where and How Big? 108
Defining and Identifying the Targets of Interventions 118
Describing Target Populations 121
Describing the Nature of Service Needs 124
Summary 130
EXPRESSING AND ASSESSING PROGRAM THEORY 133
The Evaluability Assessment Perspective 136
Describing Program Theory 139
Eliciting Program Theory 146
Assessing Program Theory 152
Possible Outcomes of Program Theory Assessment 165
Summary 166
ASSESSING AND MONITORING PROGRAM PROCESS 169
What Is Program Process Evaluation and Monitoring? 171
Perspectives on Program Process Monitoring 179
Monitoring Service Utilization 183
Monitoring Organizational Functions 191
Analysis of Program Process Monitoring Data 198
Summary 199
MEASURING AND MONITORING PROGRAM OUTCOMES 203
Randomized Field Experiments 239
Limitations on the Use of Randomized Experiments 252
Summary 262
ASSESSING PROGRAM IMPACT ALTERNATIVE DESIGNS 265
Bias in Estimation of Program Effects 267
QuasiExperimental Impact Assessment 274
Some Cautions About Using QuasiExperiments for Impact Assessment 295
Summary 297
DETECTING INTERPRETING AND ANALYZING PROGRAM EFFECTS 301
The Magnitude of a Program Effect 302
Detecting Program Effects 306
Assessing the Practical Significance of Program Effects 314
Examining Variations in Program Effects 317
The Role of MetaAnalysis 324
Summary 328
MEASURING EFFICIENCY 331
Key Concepts in Efficiency Analysis 334
Conducting CostBenefit Analyses 343
Conducting CostEffectiveness Analyses 362
Summary 366
THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF EVALUATION 369
The Social Ecology of Evaluations 373
The Profession of Evaluation 393
Evaluation Standards Guidelines and Ethics 404
Utilization of Evaluation Results 411
The Future of Evaluation 418
Summary 519
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