Beschreibung:
Programs that serve the needs of the public continually face changes brought by social, political, and economic forces. To survive these changes, organizations must evaluate their programs wisely and realistically. This book offers a new approach to evaluation, one that will encourage all kinds of organizations and agencies to improve their contributions to social betterment. The authors draw from three decades of evaluation practice and theory to present their own framework for conceptualizing evaluation and for pragmatically assessing social policies and programs.
A Brief Overview of the Evaluation Enterprise; A Framework for Describing and Planning Evaluations; Social Betterment; Realist Foundations for Sensemaking Through Evaluation; Aligning Betterment, Purposes, Modes of Inquiry, and Methods for Sensemaking in a Realist World; Evaluation Planning for Sensemaking in a Real(ist) World; Methods for Description; Classification; Methods for Causal Analysis; Values Inquiry; Evaluation as Assisted Sensemaking: A Reprise