"What Counts as Credible Evidence in Applied Research and Evaluation Practice? is the first book of its kind to define and place into greater perspective the meaning of evidence for evaluation professionals and applied researchers. Editors Stewart I. Donaldson, Christina A. Christie, and Melvin M. Mark provide observations about the diversity and changing nature of credible evidence, include lessons from their own applied research and evaluation practice, and suggest ways in which practitioners might address the key issues and challenges of collecting credible evidence." "This book is appropriate for a wide range of courses, including Introduction to Evaluation Research, Research Methods, Evaluation Practice, Program Evaluation, Program Development and Evaluation, and evaluation courses in Social Work, Education, Public Health, and Public Policy."--BOOK JACKET.

Addressing one of the most important and contentious issues challenging applied research and evaluation practice today—what constitutes credible and actionable evidence?—this volume offers a balanced and current context in which to analyze the long-debated quantitative-qualitative paradigms. In the Second Edition, the contributors, a veritable “who’s who” in evaluation, discuss the diversity and changing nature of credible and actionable evidence; offer authoritative guidance about using credible and actionable evidence; explain how to use it to provide rigorous and influential evaluations; and include lessons from their own applied research and evaluation to suggest ways to address the key issues and challenges. Reflecting the latest developments in the field and covering both experimental and non-experimental methods, the new edition includes revised and updated chapters, summaries of strengths and weaknesses across varied approaches, and contains diverse definitions of evidence. Also included are two new chapters on assessing credibility and synthesizing evidence for policy makers. This is a valuable resource for students and others interested in how to best study and evaluate programs, policies, organizations, and other initiatives designed to improve aspects of the human condition and societal well-being.

Addressing one of the most important and contentious issues challenging applied research and evaluation practice today—what constitutes credible and actionable evidence?—this volume offers a balanced and current context in which to analyze the long-debated quantitative-qualitative paradigms. In the Second Edition, the contributors, a veritable “who’s who” in evaluation, discuss the diversity and changing nature of credible and actionable evidence; offer authoritative guidance about using credible and actionable evidence; explain how to use it to provide rigorous and influential evaluations; and include lessons from their own applied research and evaluation to suggest ways to address the key issues and challenges. Reflecting the latest developments in the field and covering both experimental and non-experimental methods, the new edition includes revised and updated chapters, summaries of strengths and weaknesses across varied approaches, and contains diverse definitions of evidence. Also included are two new chapters on assessing credibility and synthesizing evidence for policy makers. This is a valuable resource for students and others interested in how to best study and evaluate programs, policies, organizations, and other initiatives designed to improve aspects of the human condition and societal well-being.

This book brings together diverse, international scholarly perspectives on education and democracy in response to contemporary challenges for educational leadership, policy and practice. The contributions meaningfully engage with a range of local and global issues regarding democratic participation and agency, with a particular focus on implications for educational access, engagement and justice. Each chapter considers the complex tensions and interplay between education histories, policies, practices and research to better understand how education can be for democracy in the twenty-first century. There is much work to be done in the field of democratic education, whether it be in the search of a better understanding of education and democracy’s relationship to one another, questions of how education might be for democracy, the importance of teaching young people about democracy, and whether education can be more democratic. This book makes a small, but important, contribution to these struggles for more democratic and socially just futures through education. Education, Policy and Democracy: Contemporary Challenges and Possibilities will be a key resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of education leadership and policy, educational administration, politics, research methods, and sociology. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Educational Administration and History.

This book helps practicing evaluators design and conduct competent evaluation studies, while explicitly considering resource and data constraints. The book is organized around a seven-step model developed by the authors, and which has been tested and refined in workshops that cater to a broad spectrum of evaluation practitioners. Vignettes from practice and case studies, representing evaluations from a variety of geographic regions and sectors, demonstrate adaptive possibilities for small projects with budgets of a few thousand dollars, or timelines as brief as a few days, to large-scale, long-term evaluations with multi-million-dollar budgets. The text is specifically designed to incorporate quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method designs.

Program Evaluation and Performance Measurement: An Introduction to Practice, Second Edition offers an accessible, practical introduction to program evaluation and performance measurement for public and non-profit organizations, and has been extensively updated since the first edition. Using examples, it covers topics in a detailed fashion, making it a useful guide for students as well as practitioners who are participating in program evaluations or constructing and implementing performance measurement systems. Authors James C. McDavid, Irene Huse, and Laura R. L. Hawthorn guide readers through conducting quantitative and qualitative program evaluations, needs assessments, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses, as well as constructing, implementing and using performance measurement systems. The importance of professional judgment is highlighted throughout the book as an intrinsic feature of evaluation practice.

In the Research Handbook on Program Evaluation, an impressive range of authors take stock of the history and current standing of key issues and debates in the evaluation field. Examining current literature of program evaluation, the Research Handbook assesses the field's status in a post-pandemic and social justice-oriented world, examining today’s theoretical and practical concerns and proposing how they might be resolved by future innovations. This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.

This book focuses on methods of choice in program evaluation. Credible methods choice lies in the assumptions we make about the appropriateness and validity of selected methods and the validity of those assumptions. As evaluators make methodological decisions in various stages of the evaluation process, a number of validity questions arise. Yet unexamined assumptions are a risk to useful evaluation. The first edition of this book discussed the formulation of credible methodological arguments and methods of examining validity assumptions. However, previous publications suggest advantages and disadvantages of using various methods and when to use them. Instead, this book analyzes assumptions underlying actual methodological choices in evaluation studies and how these influence evaluation quality. This analysis is the basis of suggested tools. The second edition extends the review of methodological assumptions to the evaluation of humanitarian assistance. While evaluators of humanitarian action apply conventional research methods and standards, they have to adapt these methods to the challenges and constraints of crisis contexts. For example, the urgency and chaos of humanitarian emergencies makes it hard to obtain program documentation; objectives may be unclear, and early plans may quickly become outdated as the context changes or is clarified. The lack of up-to-date baseline data is not uncommon. Neither is staff turnover. Differences in perspective may intensify and undermine trust. The deviation from ideal circumstances challenges evaluation and calls for methodological innovation. And how do evaluators work with assumptions in non-ideal settings? What tools are most relevant and effective? This revised edition reviews major evaluations of humanitarian action and discusses strategies for working with evaluation assumptions in crises and stable program settings.

Governments and organizations of all shapes and sizes espouse values of equity and social justice. Yet, there are many examples of unfair social arrangements and employment conditions, dysfunctional government practices, and growing income inequality in both developed and developing countries worldwide. The profession and transdiscipline of evaluation is well equipped to address issues of inequality and social injustice, but until recently has been much more focused on primary stakeholder and donor satisfaction (being as useful as possible to funders of interventions and evaluations) and accountability concerns. The authors in this volume challenge the field of evaluation to become more concerned about using evaluation to develop more equitable organizations, governments, and societies. Leading evaluation theorists and practitioners including Michael Scriven, Jennifer Greene, Thomas Schwandt, Emily Gates, Sandra Mathison, Karen Kirkhart, Saville Kushner, Lois-Ellin Datta, Ernest House, Robert Stake, Patricia Rogers, Robert Picciotto and Stewart Donaldson, provide a range of visions for how evaluation can play a much larger role in facilitating social justice across the globe. Evaluation for an Equitable Society will be of great interest to evaluation practitioners, students and scholars. It will be of interest to those teaching and taking introductory evaluation courses, as well as advanced courses focused on improving evaluation theory and practice.