Evaluation Essentials

Download or read book Evaluation Essentials written by Marvin C. Alkin and published by Guilford Publications. This book was released on 2024-10-14 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Beloved for its conversational style and reliable advice, this text is now in a revised and updated third edition, reflecting key developments in evaluation. It includes expanded coverage of equity and social justice issues, values and cost analysis, visualizing qualitative data with software, and more. Twenty-six concise chapters or "sessions" give students, applied researchers, and program administrators a solid foundation for conducting or using evaluations. Covering both quantitative and qualitative methods, the book emphasizes fostering evaluation use. It shows how to build collaborative relationships with users; formulate answerable evaluation questions; deal with contingencies that might alter the traditional sequence of an evaluation; and collect, analyze, and report data. Student-friendly features throughout the sessions include titles written as questions, bulleted recaps, "Thinking Ahead" and "Next Steps" pointers, cautionary notes, and annotated suggestions for further reading. An in-depth case study provides the basis for end-of-session practice exercises. Key Words/Subject Areas: evaluating, programs, policy, planning, evaluations, applied research methods, courses, classes, introductory, textbooks, graduate students, assessments, educational, outcomes, approaches, becoming an evaluator, logic models, resources, case studies, effectiveness, theory and practice, social justice Audience: Graduate students and instructors in education, psychology, social work, nursing, management, and public policy; applied researchers who need a refresher on conducting evaluations; educational administrators and program administrators who use evaluations in their work"--