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Author: Marlène Läubli Loud
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1452205477
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289
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Book Description
This book is valuable to those involved in the evaluation of public organisations. Particularly insightful is the realization that similar challenges faced in various organizations are addressed with very different solutions.
Author: Marlène Läubli Loud
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1483321061
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289
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Book Description
Enhancing Evaluation Use: Insights from Internal Evaluation Units offers invaluable insights from real evaluators who share strategies they have adopted through their own experiences in evaluation. Readers will learn about the challenges, solutions, and lessons drawn from the experience of evaluators working in a wide range of organizations. Referencing the latest literature, contributors discuss factors that help or undermine attempts to foster an evaluative thinking and learning culture within an organization. Applicable in a wide range of situations, their accounts demonstrate the initiative and innovative thinking they use to address challenges in various, sometimes complex, evaluation settings. Questions at the end of each chapter stimulate thought and discussions about the issues raised and allow readers to apply their findings to their own situations. "This book speaks to a cutting-edge topic, that is, the potential to generalize program evaluation expertise to larger organizational questions, and the cases from multiple international contexts represent a unique feature." —John Clayton Thomas, Georgia State University "The use of actual cases to highlight major concepts in evaluation in the public sector is a great feature." —Danica G. Hays, Old Dominion University "The text provides practical information from a variety of organizational contexts and the integration of international experiences provides for expanded discussion of evaluation theory and practice." —Kathleen Norris, Plymouth State University "The key strengths of this book lie in its national, supra-national and international organizational contexts, its consistency in insider perspectives, and the detailed examples provided." —Donna Haig Friedman, University of Massachusetts, Boston "The book of essays reviewed here was edited by two eminent evaluators. It fills an important gap in the literature: in pursuit of improved quality of evaluation products, evaluation thinkers have lavished attention on evaluation methods, ethics and use but they have sorely neglected evaluation governance issues and have largely failed to probe the workings of evaluation within organizations. Yet, most evaluations are commissioned by (or undertaken within) organizations. The choices organizations make in structuring evaluation functions and designing evaluation processes have a major bearing on the relevance, validity and usefulness of evaluations. Refreshingly, the book offers fresh mental models and practical lessons about evaluation systems and practices adopted in diverse organizational settings. All contributors to the book are seasoned practitioners. They hail from national, supranational and international organizations and many of them have trespassed across these thematic and organizational boundaries. They all are equipped to draw on a vast reservoir of hands---on experience as evaluation commissioners, managers, internal evaluators or external practitioners. Remarkably, they also display considerable familiarity with relevant themes treated by the organization management and evaluation literature. Given its pragmatic focus the book is bound to elicit broad based interest among evaluation practitioners. While it addresses familiar dilemmas and challenges (evaluation independence, evaluation utilization, organizational learning, nurturing of an evaluation culture, etc.) it does so from the distinctive perspective of "insiders" who have had to contend with a variety of organizational constraints and management pressures. Revealingly most contributors find good reasons to be optimistic about the possibility of positive change. The stage is set by John Mayne whose introductory and authoritative chapter identifies the critical importance of organizational factors in the utilization of evaluation results. This is followed by Bastiaan de Laat’s chapter which puts forward an ingenious analytical construct: the "tricky triangle" of relationships that links commissioners, evaluators and evaluands. Specifically De Laat unmasks and assesses the different and complex configurations that result from this triangular interplay. Penny Hawkins’ elegant contribution underlines the importance of evaluation independence. It highlights the considerable impact that the electoral cycle may have on evaluation approaches. It also reveals that indigenous cultures may present formidable obstacles to the very notion of external evaluative oversight. The next chapter penned by Marlene Laubli’s is equally perceptive in tracing the creative adaptation that the evaluation function underwent in response to changes in the organizational force field of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health’s Evaluation Unit. In a similar vein Erica Wimbush provides a lucid exposition of the strategies used to bridge evaluative knowledge and management action in Scotland’s public health agency. Still within the health field, Nancy Porteous and Steve Montague show convincingly that transformative organizational change in Canada’s Public Health Agency was facilitated through judicious evaluation programming and what has come to be called "double loop learning". Finally, Bastiaan de Laat and Kevin Williams summarize important findings from of two empirical studies of evaluation use in the European Commission that go a long way in identifying good practices for evaluation commissioning in a supra--- national organizational context. The next two chapters of the book focus on two specialized agencies of the United Nations. They tread gently in what is admittedly a highly sensitive and contested terrain. Maria J. Santamaria Hergueta, Alan Schnur and Deepak Thapa discuss how the World Health Organization’s evaluation function evolved towards greater independence over several decades while Janet Neubecker, Matthew Ripley and Craig Russon focus on the innovative techniques used within the International Labour Organization to enhance utilization of self evaluation findings. The final chapter by Marlene Laubli Loud misses the opportunity to compensate for the "good news" bias that understandably characterizes the previous contributions. Surprisingly, it displays ambivalence towards evaluation independence which it equates with externality, a concept soundly rejected by de Laat. But setting this dimension aside, the chapter is interesting and valuable since it reflects the co---editor’ vast experience as an evaluator, evaluation trainer and evaluation manager in diverse national and international contexts. Thus the chapter provides a useful compilation of "take away" messages focused on good evaluation management practices. It is on solid grounds when it describes how to make effective use of advisory committees, motivate potential evaluation users, design good terms of reference, select the right evaluators, craft judicious evaluation policies and keep an eye out for political "windows of opportunity". Each chapter of the book concludes with a crisp exposition of overarching findings, discussion topics and references. Thus the volume should be of practical value to teachers, students, professional evaluators as well as evaluation commissioners and programme managers. All in all, this is a book that belongs on your shelf if you are intent on enhancing the role that evaluation plays in your organization." —Robert Picciotto, UKES Council Member
Author: Marlène Läubli Loud
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1452205477
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289
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Book Description
This book is valuable to those involved in the evaluation of public organisations. Particularly insightful is the realization that similar challenges faced in various organizations are addressed with very different solutions.
Author: Michael S. Trevisan
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1483324621
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282
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Book 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. Evaluability Assessment: Improving Evaluation Quality and Use, by Michael Trevisan and Tamara Walser, provides an up-to-date treatment of EA, clarifies what it actually is and how it can be used, demonstrates EA as an approach to evaluative inquiry with multidisciplinary and global appeal, and identifies and describes the purposes and benefits to using EA. Using case examples contributed by EA practitioners, the text illustrates important features of EA use, and showcases how EA is used in a variety of disciplines and evaluation contexts. This text is appropriate as an instructional text for graduate level evaluation courses and training, and as a resource for evaluation practitioners, policymakers, funding agencies, and professional training. “The most impressive aspect of this book is that it positions EA as an approach that perfectly fits within the current philosophical views on program evaluation… The authors do a great job connecting these theories to practice, and provide good guidelines.” —Sebastian Galindo-Gonzalez, University of Florida “This book is focused on one very important topic in the scope of program evaluation content. It establishes the foundation for a variety of applications: impact assessment, program development, and formative evaluation. This text provides new insights and methods for conducting evaluability assessment.” —S. Kim MacGregor, Louisiana State University “The book is written in a very readable style, is well organized and referenced. I like the inclusion of case studies, guidelines for actually doing EA, and the extensive discussion of its alignment with other models of evaluation process.” —Iris Smith, Emory University
Author: Christina A. Russell
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 1648022553
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 365
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Book Description
Measure, Use, Improve! Data Use in Out-of-School Time shares the experience and wisdom from a broad cross-section of out-of-school time professionals, ranging from internal evaluators, to funders, to researchers, to policy advocates. Key themes of the volume include building support for learning and evaluation within out-of-school time programs, creating and sustaining continuous quality improvement efforts, authentically engaging young people and caregivers in evaluation, and securing funder support for learning and evaluation. This volume will be particularly useful to leadership-level staff in out-of-school time organizations that are thinking about deepening their own learning and evaluation systems, yet aren’t sure where to start. Authors share conceptual frameworks that have helped inform their thinking, walk through practical examples of how they use data in out-of-school time, and offer advice to colleagues. Book reviews and associated articles: Journal of Youth Development: Book Review - Measure, Use, Improve! Data Use in Out-of-School Time Sperling Center: Q&A with Christina A. Russell and Corey Newhouse The Forum for Youth Investment: Measure, Use, Improve! Data Use in Out-of-School Time
Author: Michael Quinn Patton
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 376
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Book Description
The second edition of Patton's classic text retains the practical advice, based on empirical observation and evaluation theory, of the original. It shows how to conduct an evaluation, from beginning to end, in a way that will be useful -- and actually used. Patton believes that evaluation epitomizes the challenges of producing and using information in the information age. His latest book includes new stories, new examples, new research findings, and more of Patton's evaluation humour. He adds to the original book's insights and analyses of the changes in evaluation during the past decade, including: the emergence of evaluation as a field of professional practice; articulation of standards for evaluation; a methodological synthesis of the qualitative versus quantitative debate; the tremendous growth of 'in-house' evaluations; and the cross-cultural development of evaluation as a profession. This edition also incorporates the considerable research done on utilization during the last ten years. Patton integrates diverse findings into a coherent framework which includes: articulation of utilization-focused evaluation premises; examination of the stakeholder assumption; and clarification of the meaning of utilization. --Publisher description.
Author: Jason A. Grissom
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 080775739X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 209
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Book Description
This is the first book to pull together what we have learned about the impacts and challenges of data-intensive teacher evaluation systemsa defining characteristic of the current education policy landscape. Expert researchers and practitioners speak to what we know (and what remains to be known) about evaluation measures themselves, the implementation of evaluation systems, and the use of evaluation data. The authors argue that rigorous teacher evaluation systems have the potential to promote school improvement but only if the systems are carefully designed and implemented and the data they generate are interpreted and used appropriately. This timely and important volume will be relevant and useful to school and district administrators, policymakers, researchers, and teacher education institutions grappling with issues of teacher accountability and school leadership.
Author: John A. Centra
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 280
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Book Description
John A. Centra provides faculty members, administrators, and faculty development specialists with the up-to-date approaches they need to evaluate and improve teaching. He underscores the importance of active methods of teaching and the need to evaluate those methods in less traditional ways. He discusses the value and proper use of self-reports and portfolios, and examines better ways to involve colleagues in evaluating and improving teaching.
Author: Martin H. Jason
Publisher: Corwin Press
ISBN: 1452211426
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 209
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Book Description
This updated edition on evaluating the effectiveness of school programs provides an expanded needs-assessment section, additional methods for data analysis, and tools for communicating program results.
Author: Ingrid Guerra-López
Publisher: Human Resource Development
ISBN: 1599960516
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 181
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Book Description
This practical book will help you to create positive change. It is a clearly written resource that breaks down the evaluation process into seven easy steps. Evaluating Impact uses a common-sense approach to conducting data-driven evaluations that are simple and efficient and deliver the improved and measurable performance you want.
Author: Linda Darling-Hammond
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN: 080777197X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 193
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Book Description
Teacher evaluation systems are being overhauled by states and districts across the United States. And, while intentions are admirable, the result for many new systems is that goodoften excellentteachers are lost in the process. In the end, students are the losers. In her new book, Linda Darling-Hammond makes a compelling case for a research-based approach to teacher evaluation that supports collaborative models of teacher planning and learning. She outlines the most current research informing evaluation of teaching practice that incorporates evidence of what teachers do and what their students learn. In addition, she examines the harmful consequences of using any single student test as a basis for evaluating individual teachers. Finally, Darling-Hammond offers a vision of teacher evaluation as part of a teaching and learning system that supports continuous improvement, both for individual teachers and for the profession as a whole.
