Practical Program Evaluations: Getting From Ideas to Outcomes

Program evaluation requires attention to rationality, rigor, and careful methods. Yet precision and accuracy alone do not guarantee that program evaluations will be implemented. What prevents an evaluation from being thrown on a shelf to gather dust? Author Gerald Emison, a practitioner with more than 20 years experience, knows that the consumers of program evaluations operate in a decidedly practical and political arena where decision making is a very human and sometimes messy process. Getting students from ideas to outcomes means that knowing clients’ needs and effectively communicating results are just as crucial as an evaluator’s theoretical knowledge and statistical analysis. Emison wants to help students translate their mastery of methodology into useable program evaluations that are implemented and affect actual programs. Short and to-the-point, Practical Program Evaluations hones in on the applied side of program evaluation, with the goal of creating and presenting program evaluations that are used and improve public enterprises. A handy supplement to core texts, Emison offers honest advice, emphasizing practices that focus on the client, content, control and communication of program evaluations.