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This volume provides a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to the skills, attitudes and methods required to evaluate programs offered in public and private organizations. The authors stress the development of a program-improvement focus that begins with program conceptualization through implementation and analysis of outcomes and costs. They also provide detailed descriptions of methods for improving program evaluation reports and encouraging utilization.

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• (NOTE: Each chapter concludes with a Summary and Preview, Study Questions, And Additional Resources. Also some chapters conclude with Case Studies.)
• 1 Program Evaluation: An Overview
• Evaluation tasks that need to be done
• Common types of program evaluations
• Activities often confused with program evaluation
• Differnet types of evaluations for differnet kinds of programs
• Purpose of program evaluation
• The roles of evaluators
• 2 Planning an Evaluation
• An overview of evaluation models
• Steps in preparing to conduct an evaluation
• Dysfunctional attitudes toward program evaluation
• 3 Selecting Criteria and Setting Standards
• Importance of selecting criteria and setting standards
• Developing goals and objectives
• Evaluation criteria and evaluation questions
• Some practical limitations on selecting evaluation criteria
• 4 Developing Measures
• Sources of data for evaluating
• Qualities of good assessment procedures
• Types of measures of evaluation criteria
• Preparing special surveys
• 5 Ethics in Program Evaluation
• Standards for the practice of evaluation
• Ethical issues involved in the treatment of people
• Role conflicts facing evaluators
• Recognizing the different needs of stakeholders
• The validity of evaluations
• Avoiding possible negative side effects of evaluation procedures
• Ethical problems evaluators report
• 6 The Assessment of Need
• Definitions of need
• Sources of information for the assessment of need
• Inadequate assessment of need
• Using need assessments in program planning
• 7 Monitoring the Operation of Programs
• Monitoring programs as a means of evaluating programs
• What to summarize with information systems
• Program records and information systems
• Following the course of service
• Threatening uses of information systems
• Avoiding common problems in implementing an information system
• 8 Single Group, Nonexperimental Outcome Evaluations
• Single-group evaluation designs
• Uses of single-group, descriptive designs
• Threats to internal validity
• Construct validity in pretest-posttest designs
• Overinterpreting the results of single-group designs
• Usefulness of single-group designs as initial approaches to program evaluation
• 9 Quasi-Experimental Approaches to Outcome Evaluation
• Making observations at a greater number of intervals
• Observing other groups
• Regression-discontinuity design
• Observing other dependent variables
• Combining designs to increase internal validity
• 10 Using Experiments to Evaluate Programs
• Experiments in program evaluation
• Objections to experimentation
• The most desirable times to conduct experiments
• Preserving an experimental design
• Precautions before data collection
• Precautions while the experiment is in progess
• 11 Analysis of Costs and Outcomes
• Cost analyses and budgets
• Comparing outcomes to costs
• Some details of cost analyses
• Major criticisms of cost analyses
• 12 Qualitative Evaluation Methods
• Evaluation settings best served by qualitative methods
• Gathering qualitative information
• Carrying out naturalistic evaluations
• Coordinating qualitative and quantitative methods
• Philosophical assumptions
• 13 Evaluation Reports: Interpreting and Communicating Findings
• Developing a communication plan
• Personal presentations of findings
• Content of formal written evaluation reports
• Progress reports and press releases
• 14 How to Encourage Utilization
• Obstacles to effective utilization
• Dealing with mixed findings
• Using evaluations showing no program effects
• Developing a learning culture
• Evaluation attitude
• Summ