The value of experiential approaches to evaluation training

The training of evaluators is an important task—important because of the good that well trained evaluators can do and because of the mischief that poorly trained evaluators can cause. There is broad agreement on the importance of producing evaluators who are methodologically versatile and organizationally savvy. To accomplish these educational ends it is necessary to supplement classroom based instruction with experiential approaches. This paper describes a theoretical model of an effective experiential educational program for training evaluators, assesses two operating programs against the requirements of the model, and reports the results of a quasi-experimental evaluation of the effectiveness of the programs in producing important educational outcomes.     

Accountability revisited: the arrival of client outcome evaluation

In the past few years, "accountability" for public mental health programs has become differentiated in the minds of not only program evaluators, but also program managers and funders, including state and local-level legislators. Increasingly, these officials are becoming concerned with more than just the numbers and targets of services delivered, and the cost involved, and are looking for evidence of positive outcome or impact on clients to justify program implementation and maintenance. This represents a significant move beyond the two accountability models that most recently seemed to be the focus of most formal accountability efforts--performance measurement and quality assurance. Pressures for implementing these two alternatives seem to have been reduced somewhat by the new federal Administration, but even prior to its advent there had been a rapid escalation in awareness of and concern for client outcome measurement among important audiences, including state and local mental health policy-makers and the U.S. Congress. This presents a major new opportunity and challenge for program evaluators at this new accountability focus continues to gather momentum.     

Techniques for the analysis of geographic data in evaluation

Although geographic relationships are often an important aspect of a program or system under evaluation, these relationships have frequently been ignored by evaluators. Standard techniques do exist, however, for the analysis of geographic data. This paper presents three such techniques, Geocode Analysis, Trend Surface Analysis, and Social Area Analysis, and discusses their use in evaluation. With these techniques, evaluators can more adequately deal with the questions of geographic relationships which arise in many studies.     

Resolving conflicting demands on evaluation: A test demonstration of videotex for farmers

Evaluating an innovation for federal, state, and local policymakers and program managers alike entails conflicting demands on the evaluation study. Policymakers at federal, state, and local levels are best assisted by impact evaluations, whereas state and local program managers are best assisted by process evaluations. In-house evaluators often have an advantage in conducting process evaluations; external evaluators generally have an advantage in conducting impact evaluations. A cost-effective approach may be to combine in-house process evaluation and external impact evaluation. This dual approach was found to reduce conflicting demands on the evaluation of an experimental videotex system for agricultural producers.     

Avoiding evaluation cooptation. Lessons from a renal dialysis evaluation.

An evaluation of the impact of terminating contracts to transport low-income patients for renal dialysis demonstrates how evaluators may become apologists for management and conduct studies too narrow for effective decision making. The evaluation found that patients continued to receive treatment; their death rates had not increased. Changes in their economic and emotional status were not studied; consequently, the evaluators erroneously concluded that the clients had not been seriously harmed. The article reviews the process the evaluation used. The authors conclude that to avoid cooptation, evaluators need independent information available through conducting and analyzing pilot studies and meeting with program constituents. To avoid overly narrow studies, the next level of management should participate in their design. To use the information effectively, evaluators need to see themselves as advisors rather than technicians.     

Organizing evaluation to serve the needs of program planners and managers

Evaluation is often both conceptually and functionally separate from program planning and operations management. Though program managers may not see themselves as served well by the work of evaluation staffs, there are a number of potentially beneficial side effects to be realized from close collaboration between program administrators and evaluators. These flow only when the evaluation task is broadly defined and when both administrators and evaluators recognize their interdependence. Particular functional benefits to management from evaluation are described. Characteristics of interorganizational relations which might increase the probability of their attainment are then outlined and discussed.     

Custody Evaluations: Ethics in Training Evaluators

Little has been written addressing ethical considerations in the training of custody evaluators and mediators. This article summarizes the ethical principles involved in training new evaluators and in providing ongoing training to experienced evaluators. Model programs for both types of training are presented.     

How evaluators can deal with role conflict

Unclear professional norms create problems of role conflict for program evaluators. Four circumstances that produce role conflict and suggestions for dealing with each one are examined. The influence of the organizational context on role conflicts is also considered.     

Where local and national evaluators meet: unintended threats to ethical evaluation practice

The ethical work of program evaluators is based on a covenant of honesty and transparency among stakeholders. Yet even under the most favorable evaluation conditions, threats to ethical standards exist and muddle that covenant. Unfortunately, ethical issues associated with different evaluation structures and contracting arrangements have received little attention in the evaluation research literature. This article focuses on the unintended ethical threats associated with multitiered evaluation contexts. After briefly reviewing the various frames through which evaluation theory and ethics are commonly viewed, we discuss ethical challenges associated with multitiered evaluation designs including examples drawn from our evaluation projects. The article concludes with specific findings and recommendations for evaluators, grantors, grantees, and researchers.     

Analyzing mental health evaluation: moral and ethical dimensions

Now that evaluators have been sensitized to the importance of moral and ethical issues in their work, it is time to move beyond generalities and examine the moral and ethical implications of specific evaluation models in specific settings. This paper proposes a framework that can be used to examine moral and ethical dimensions of evaluation and illustrates it by analyzing a selected model of mental health evaluation. Such a systematic identification of moral issues can improve evaluation practice both proactively, by shaping the training of evaluators, and retrospectively, by contributing to meta-evaluation.     

The Influence of Divorcing Mothers' Demeanor on Custody Evaluators' Assessment of Their Domestic Violence Allegations

A gap exists between empirical evidence demonstrating the risks posed by domestic violence (DV) and the weight that evidence is given by custody evaluators. This gap may result from common beliefs about DV that diminish or deny its seriousness, which include that mothers often make false allegations to gain advantage and that DV and high conflict are synonymous and do not require differential approaches. Using a multiple segment factorial vignette design, we systematically assessed how these beliefs influenced custody evaluators' (N = 603) recommendations and judgments of the believability of allegations. Mother's demeanor (i.e., hostile vs. pleasant) was the most consistent predictor of evaluators' recommendations and judgments of credibility. Findings have implications for providing research-based education and training for evaluators.     

Ethical problems in program evaluation: Advice for trapped evaluators

This paper argues that ethical problems in program evaluation are increased when conflicting or incompatible evaluation models are applied concurrently. Three models are illustrated: an Amelioration Model, generating better information for a program's own decision makers; an Accountability Model, focusing on public data disclosure and citizen participation in evaluation; and an Advocacy Model, in which the evaluation is designed to advance the program's interests in the competition for resources. Ethical problems inherent in each model, and arising from combining models are presented, along with case examples and discussion. The authors suggest several directions that program evaluators can consider to reduce their vulnerability to ethical problems.     

Statistical power for nonequivalent pretest-posttest designs. The impact of change-score versus ANCOVA models

Nonequivalent controlled pretest-posttest designs are central to evaluation science, yet no practical and unified approach for estimating power in the two most widely used analytic approaches to these designs exists. This article fills the gap by presenting and comparing useful, unified power formulas for ANCOVA and change-score analyses, indicating the implications of each on sample-size requirements. The authors close with practical recommendations for evaluators. Mathematical details and a simple spreadsheet approach are included in appendices.     

Semi-structured interview protocol for constructing logic models

This paper details a semi-structured interview protocol that evaluators can use to develop a logic model of a program's services and outcomes. The protocol presents a series of questions, which evaluators can ask of specific program informants, that are designed to: (1) identify key informants basic background and contextual information, (2) generate logic model elements, (3) model program inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes, (4) build a rational theory, (5) develop a program theory, (6) prioritize logic model elements, and (7) build a graphical or tabular logic model. The paper will also provide an example of how this approach was used to develop a logic model for a youth mentoring program. It is our hope and belief that with this interview protocol, novice evaluators will be able to generate comprehensive logic models like seasoned professional evaluators.     

Assumptions at the philosophical and programmatic levels in evaluation

Stakeholders and evaluators hold a variety of levels of assumptions at the philosophical, methodological, and programmatic levels. The use of a transformative philosophical framework is presented as a way for evaluators to become more aware of the implications of various assumptions made by themselves and program stakeholders. The argument is examined and demonstrated that evaluators who are aware of the assumptions that underlie their evaluation choices are able to provide useful support for stakeholders in the examination of the assumptions they hold with regard to the nature of the problem being addressed, the program designed to solve the problem, and the approach to evaluation that is appropriate in that context. Such an informed approach has the potential for development of more appropriate and culturally responsive programs being implemented in ways that lead to the desired impacts, as well as to lead to evaluation approaches that support effective solutions to intransigent social problems. These arguments are illustrated through examples of evaluations from multiple sectors; additional challenges are also identified.     

Developmental trends in program evaluation

It is suggested that the ontogeny of program evaluators replicates the phytogeny of the profession of program evaluation. A trend across the purposes of program evaluation from program amelioration to program advocacy and ultimately to program accountability is projected.     

Assumption-aware tools and agency; an interrogation of the primary artifacts of the program evaluation and design profession in working with complex evaluands and complex contexts

Like artisans in a professional guild, we evaluators create tools to suit our ever evolving practice. The tools we use as evaluators are the primary artifacts of our profession, reflect our practice and embody an amalgamation of paradigms and assumptions. With the increasing shifts in evaluation purposes from judging program worth to understanding how programs work, the evaluator’s role is changing to that of facilitating stakeholders in a learning process. This involves clarifying purposes and choices, as well as unearthing critical assumptions. In such a role, evaluators become major tool-users and begin to innovate with small refinements or produce completely new tools to fit a specific challenge or context.We interrogate the form and function of 12 tools used by evaluators when working with complex evaluands and complex contexts. The form is described in terms of traditional qualitative techniques and particular characteristics of the elements, use and presentation of each tool. Then the function of each tool is analyzed with respect to articulating assumptions and affecting the agency of evaluators and stakeholders in complex contexts.     

Interprofessional Client-Centered Reasoning Processes in Home Modification Practice

We investigated the complex reasoning processes of professional home evaluators involved with home safety assessments. Twenty evaluators with varied professional training engaged in in-depth qualitative interviews. Two primary themes emerged: integrating expertise and tailoring interventions. Within these themes, evaluators expressed differences and similarities in how they obtained information, developed interventions, and addressed professional-client interactive reasoning as they identified needs. We propose an adapted ecological model to describe best practices for personalizing home modifications through an interprofessional lens. Differences among professional home evaluators reveal unique, yet overlapping reasoning processes. Interprofessional teams may better meet the holistic needs of home modification consumers.