Program Evaluation: Alternative Approaches and Practical Guidelines

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

"A highly esteemed and comprehensive overview of program evaluation that covers common approaches, models, and methods. " As schools and other organizations increase their demand for information on program effectiveness and outcomes, it has become even more important for students to understand the prevalent approaches and models for evaluation, including approaches based on objectives and logic models, participative, and decision-making approaches. The new tenth edition of "Program Evaluation" not only covers these vital approaches but also teaches readers how to best mix and match elements of different approaches to conduct optimal evaluation studies for individual programs. Helping both students as well as professionals who are new to the field, this text provides practical guidelines for conducting evaluations, from identifying the questions that the evaluation should address, to determining how to collect and analyze evaluative information, to ascertaining how to provide evaluative information to others. Making extensive use of checklists, examples, and other study aides, "Program Evaluation "teaches students how to effectively determine the central purpose of their evaluation, thus making their evaluation more valid, more useful, and more efficient. The revised edition of the text includes new approaches to program evaluation, an expanded discussion of logic models, added information on mixed models, and, as always, updated coverage of the most current trends and controversial issues in evaluation.

Genres: School, Textbooks, Grad School, Nonfiction, Education

568 pages, Hardcover

First published August 16, 2003

Reviews

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 1 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

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

[liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay overview.

[Serena · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thrilling!

[Lachelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Program eval. textbook. check. yeah.

[Dan]

beacause 1 am study an doctorado

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

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

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very boring and repetitive. Ok for a reference book.

[Nosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reference book.

[Marina · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[jmw0313 Julie Weldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 1 out of 5]

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