Program Evaluation: Alternative Approaches and Practical Guidelines

by Jody L. Fitzpatrick, Blaine R. Worthen, James R. Sanders

The most comprehensive text on program evalation, providing an overview of a wide variety of approaches to evaluation and extensive practical guidelines for how to carry out evaluation studies successfully. This text helps both students and professionals who are new to evaluation to understand how the field has evolved , what different approaches an evaluator can take in conducting evaluations, and how to plan and conduct an evaluation. The text makes extensive use of checklists, examples, and a comprehensive case study. Finally, throughout the book, students are introduced to current trends and controversial issues in evaluation and ways to conduct evaluations in an ethical and professional manner.

Genres: School, Textbooks, Grad School, Education

576 pages, Hardcover

First published August 16, 2003

Reviews

[Robin]

You know that one in your workplace who can't deliver a simple 2 paragraph email, or get to their point in a meeting? They've written a book.

[Liz]

This was a practical guide to program evaluation that also included a valuable overview of the associated history and theory. If I were to read it again, I think it would be more useful to start with Part 3 and 4 and then read 1 and 2.

[martha]

UGGGH, kill me now. So much bullshit padding. Like, literally using "the dictionary defines X as..." to needlessly fill space. Just used the word evaluation 4 times in one sentence. Exhaustively lists synonyms of the word evaluate. For 500 pages and $100+.

[Thomas De Ceglie]

I understand its importance in the scope of my program, but it is exactly as interesting a read as the title indicates.

[Alison]

Painful. Excruciating read.
Literally puts the reader to sleep.
Useful in some parts as it was the text for my University subject

[liz]

Ok. Not great.

Some glaring typos, the ebook was not totally set up for all the tools (some sections of text refused to be highlighted)...

But the book itself was rather repetitive, redundant, and said the same thing over and over.

[WreckEm711]

As others have said, there’s some great information here, and it can serve as a good reference text when conducting program evaluations, but it’s wrapped in an extremely padded, repetitious package that makes it a chore to pull out the most useful information.

[Samantha]

An okay overview.

[Laurel Swan]

It’s a textbook and reads like one. Not overly complicated and explains things well with good examples.

[Serena]

This text was the course text for a program evaluation graduate level course. A few reading assignments into the course, I found it more beneficial to skip the reading and use the index to locate the relevant portions of the text.

This textbook would have been more tolerable if it was less conversational and more concise. I had this cute little old professor in college that was brilliant but lecturing was not one of his strong suits. He would ramble on and go off on tangents and before long I would have no idea how what he was saying was related to the discussion topic. Reading this text was much like sitting in one that professor's lectures.

I gave the text a three only because I did learn a great deal from the course and this text was the primary resource that I used. Organize and get rid of all the superfluous and extraneous conversations.

[Carey]

Thrilling!

[Lachelle]

Program eval. textbook. check. yeah.

[Dan]

beacause 1 am study an doctorado

[Megan]

Very dry look at program evaluation and the underlying theories and practices

[Katie]

Very boring and repetitive. Ok for a reference book.

[Nosa]

Great reference book.

[Marina]

This book provides with many approaches and guidelines on program evaluation. The information can be utilized in any industry.

[jmw0313 Julie Weldon]

Read this book for a program evaluation course in grad school. Very helpful & will be used as a reference in a real world setting.

[Holly Bond]

I can't say I was too impressed by this one. I used it rarely for class.