Program Evaluation Embedding Evaluation Into Program Design and Development

"Evaluation matters. It really does. It has implications for just about everything we encounter in our daily lives. The toothpaste we use to brush our teeth each morning: Is it safe? Hopefully someone has carefully evaluated its safety and effectiveness before putting it on the shelves for purchase. The training program for the driver of the bus we might ride to work or school: Was it effective in adequately training the driver? We hope so, because we are putting our lives in the bus driver's hands. The commercials on TV: Could they adversely impact young, impressionable minds? We imagine the purpose is to influence, but whom, in what ways, and to what extent? The government unemployment program, should we find ourselves without a job: Is it effective as a short-term measure while individuals actively seek new employment? This is the same program that part of your income goes toward every pay period. Is it a good use of your money? Is there a more effective way to facilitate employment? More than anything, this textbook is about thinking critically. It provides approaches and methods to systematically examine interventions, programs, and policies to make decisions about effectiveness, develop ideas for improvement, and assess impact. Thus, the mission of this textbook is to increase the use of evaluation. I realize this statement has a double meaning, and that is intentional. In whatever path you choose, I hope this text provides you with the tools to be an evaluator and fosters in you the call and essentiality to evaluate. Further, I hope this text encourages you to use findings from evaluation to make decisions. So, while the mission is to increase the use of evaluation, the goal is to build capacity across multiple fields to prioritize evaluation by increasing knowledge about evaluation and improving skills to conduct evaluations. I have been working with practitioners most of my career to evaluate programs. I saw sophisticated evaluations funded and conducted. And I saw no evaluation processes left behind when the funding was gone. I saw expectations at the local, state, and federal levels for data-based decision making, without the accompanying capacity building to use data and conduct evaluation. I worked with programs that saw evaluation as purely compliance, to check the box that they did what they were supposed to, missing an opportunity for program improvement based on data. I saw millions of dollars spent on untested programs. And I saw uneasiness and dread when practitioners spoke of evaluation. For these reasons, among others, I changed my approach to evaluation from one of expert to one of partner. When working with clients, I focused on the opportunity of evaluation rather than the requirement of evaluation. I worked to build evaluation processes that were not dependent upon me, but that built capacity among program staff to continue those processes once I was no longer there"-- Provided by publisher.