Lessons Learned From the First-Year Evaluation of a Small-Scale Home Visitation Program

ABSTRACT

Home visitation programs to prevent child maltreatment are offered in many communities. Agencies in these communities want to help families in need while under increased pressure to provide effective services. Funding is limited and competitive; some agencies might choose to limit funds spent on supervision, training, and evaluation as a way to provide more direct service. In this article, we use an implementation science framework and the results of an evaluation of a small home visitation program to underscore the importance of ongoing training and supervision, attention to fidelity, and program evaluation. The evaluation included 17 families entering the program during 21 months. Evaluators visited families in their homes at the beginning of the program and again 10 months later. Like many other well-intended, small-scale programs, this one “borrowed” from evidence-based models and expanded enrollment criteria in an attempt to better serve families. Findings from the evaluation suggest that the program, as it was carried out, was not effective at reducing parenting behaviors known to be associated with child maltreatment. We offer advice to funding and community agencies based on these findings and implementation science. Future evaluation research must pay greater attention to fidelity and implementation.     

Voting with their mice: personal genome testing and the "participatory turn" in disease research

While the availability of genome tests on the internet has given rise to heated debates about the likely impact on personal genome information on test-takers, on insurance, and on healthcare systems, in this article I argue that a more tangible effect of personal genomics is that it has started to change how participation in disease research is conceived and enacted. I examine three models of research participation that personal genomics customers are encouraged to engage in. I conclude with an evaluation of the pitfalls and benefits of "crowdsourcing" genetic disease research in the context of personal genomics.     

Transforming the Evaluation of the Rule of Law in China*

Over the past ten years, China has seen a number of practices exploring the evaluation of the rule of law. It is important that we sum up the practical experience of these evaluations, analyze the problems they encounter, determine their direction nationwide, and put forward constructive ideas. With the issuing of the Decision of the Central Committee of the CPC on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform and the Decision of the Central Committee of the CPC on Promoting a Number of Major Issues of the Rule of Law, evaluation of the rule of law faces a transformation both in theory and in practice. The key points in this transformation are having the right orientation, innovative mechanisms and solutions to tricky issues of quantitative evaluation; summing up evaluation of experience; and elevating evaluation to the level of theory. A precondition for its effective evaluation is a scientific mechanism for evaluating the rule of law; in turn, the key to a scientific evaluation is solving the problems in quantitative evaluation of the rule of law; and the necessary requirements for evaluation practice are summing up evaluation experience and elevating it to the level of theory. The key to innovative mechanisms for evaluating the rule of law lies in implementation of the third party evaluation model and in quantitative evaluation that starts with particular programs.     

Internal and external evaluation of social work

In the UK a number of factors are bringing the idea of evaluation of social work into a new prominence. This paper considers the different meanings which may be attached to the terms internal and external in the context of social work evaluation, and outlines the differences between scientific, developmental and managerial approaches. It is argued that while some suspicion of the purpose of current demands for evaluation may be justified, the calls for greater accountability have some justice and are unlikely to diminish. If the domination of bureaucratic and financial considerations over professional judgements is to be avoided, social workers must overcome their alleged anti-evaluative professional culture and consider how to systematically evaluate their own practice, both individually and collectively.     

我国资信评估业发展中存在的问题及对策

目前 ,我国资信评估业经过十余年的发展 ,仍然存在着资信评估机构缺乏自主性 ,未能做到独立运行 ,资信评估效应不显著 ,资信评估指标不统一 ,方法各异等需要解决的问题。尤其是在我国加入WT0后 ,加快发展我国的资信评估业具有极其深刻的现实意义     

Optimizing Geriatric Social Work Education: Program and Individual Characteristics That Promote Competencies

Since 1998, the Hartford Partnership Program in Aging Education (HPPAE) has been implemented in over 70 graduate social work programs. This study examined whether program and individual student characteristics are associated with students' knowledge, skills, and values in aging. We conducted a secondary analysis of national program evaluation data. Results from hierarchical linear models indicated greater gains in knowledge of aging among full-time students, as well as students in programs that had defined field rotation models and/or that made greater use of geriatric social work competencies. Implications for efforts to enhance graduate social work education in aging are discussed.     

Knowledge, interests and the many meanings of evaluation: a developmental perspective

The problems addressed by evaluation research and practice are the problems that emerged in the efforts to form, consolidate, and reform the modern welfare state. Each of these problems are linked with stakeholders with divergent and often conflicting interests. One of the major characteristics of the history of evaluation research has been efforts to develop evaluation theory, design and methodology that are responsive to the knowledge interests of different stakeholders.     

“Keeping It Real”: An Evaluation Audit of Five Years of Youth-Led Program Evaluation

Youth are increasingly seen as competent in participating in research and program evaluation, two activities previously reserved for adults. This article is a report of the findings from an evaluation audit of Stand Up! Help Out!, a participatory action after-school youth leadership development program for disadvantaged urban youth that utilized youth evaluations to develop a best practices service model. The youths' feedback assisted providers in improving services so that youth engagement in the program was 99% (by comparison with national highs of 79%). Here, the authors describe an important aspect of the process of youth-led program evaluation leading to such high youth engagement: how youth interviewed each other so as to optimize the authenticity of their program evaluations and contributions to program design. Drawing from over 5 years of program evaluation data collected by youth, the authors report on the youths' experiences as informants and coresearchers, consider strategies used to help youth best describe their experiences in the program, and describe implications for other settings looking to incorporate youth-led program evaluation. Youth-led program evaluation has considerable promise for helping service providers make programs more meaningful for disadvantaged youth.     

Internal evaluation: integrating evaluation and social work practice

Internal evaluation involves the use of internal staff to evaluate programs or issues of direct relevance to an organization. The use of internal evaluation has been growing rapidly during the last decade. Nevertheless, there is a serious gap in knowledge about internal evaluation, especially for human service and non-governmental organizations. This paper begins by examining internal evaluation within the discourse of a "new vision" of evaluation that links evaluation closely to management and practice. The paper explores the unique characteristics of internal evaluation, its strengths and weaknesses, the process of internal evaluation, steps in developing internal evaluation capacity, strategies for effective internal evaluation, and positive and negative roles of internal evaluators. It concludes with a look at some recent developments in the evolution of internal evaluation.     

论绩效审计

绩效审计与效益审计虽然有着紧密的联系,但是它们毕竟是两个不同的审计范畴,其主要区别在于审计的客体指向审计的内容、目的、作用和职能的表现等四个方面,因此绩效审计的范畴相对于效益审计范畴具有更深层的内涵。绩效审计中"绩"的评价核心是建立一套科学的评价指标体系。对于经济运行单位而言,这套评价指标体系主要包括四类:一是任期资产保值增值指标,二是任期财务情况指标,三是任期偿债能力指标,四是任期市场环境适应指标。绩效审计中"效"的评价核心同样需要建立一套科学的评价指标体系。对于经济运行单位而言,这套评价指标体系主要包括经济效益、生态效益和社会效益三类指标。     

文化传媒产业的绩效稽核分析

面对日趋激烈的竞争,文化传媒产业加强企业绩效稽核是当务之急。而绩效稽核制度却存在着诸如难以兼顾社会性和盈利性、关联交易形成的障碍、资产重组影响等问题。因此,需要结合文化传媒产业的发展特征,从建立合理稽核组织架构、培养稽核的核心专长、扩大稽核作用、注意成本效益原则、结合经营管理的基础上搭建动态的企业绩效稽核框架,同时,从管理者素质及其管理哲学、企业文化、权责分派体系与信息系统等方面优化传媒业的绩效稽核环境,强化其在企业管理中的作用,促进文化传媒产业的成长与跃升。     

事实与价值的纠葛--试析历史认知与历史评价的关系问题

历史认识的两种基本形式———历史认知与历史评价,在诸多方面既有明显差别又客观存在着密切联系,而这种联系恰恰说明历史评价在认识中的普遍性,同时也具体展现了事实与价值在历史认识过程中复杂的交互运动。在处理认知与评价、事实与价值、主体与客体的关系问题上,不能简单采取消解矛盾的方法,而要在联系中发现其变化的整体趋向与特征。     

技术资产评估的方法选择研究

技术资产是指含有技术内容的无形资产 ,现行的技术资产评估普遍采用重置成本、现行市价、收益现值等评估标准及方法。在不同的客观环境下 ,应选择适当的评估方法。影响方法选择的因素主要包括 :评估目标、评估条件和评估对象。     

生态学视角下的政府绩效评价研究——以第三方政府绩效评价为例

我国政府绩效评价的研究在不断深入,很多地方也在进行形式多样的政府绩效评价或考核,但总的来看,政府绩效评价并没有成为我国公共行政改革和发展的重要治理工具之一,它对政府行政行为的指导能力仍然有限,社会公众在政府绩效评价中参与度依然不高。政府绩效评价本身作为一个系统,在其自身发展的同时,也与生存于其中的整个社会环境系统进行着能量和信息的交换以达到动态的平衡,这种互动的过程具有生态系统的特征。本文从生态环境的视角探讨我国的政府绩效尤其是第三方政府绩效评价在发展过程中面临的问题,反思我们目前的政府绩效评价的研究倾向,并分析政府绩效评价生态环境对第三方政府绩效评价的影响。     

简述宋代招标投标制度的程序

宋代的招标投标是政府与投标人之间的经济行为。招标投标制度的程序非常规范,大致可分为招标、投标、评标和定标四个环节。一般是先由官府发布招标声明,并审查投标人的资格,然后在规定的时限内收取投标文书。限满之后,在州府人员的监督下开始评标。宋代的主流评标法是最高价标准。评标结束后,要对外公布结果,官府和中标人双方签订合同,并各自履行职责。     

城乡低保资金绩效评价指标体系构建研究

城乡低保资金绩效评价是完善低保制度,加强财政专项支出绩效管理的内在要求。鉴于现有低保资金绩效评价指标体系存在的问题,借鉴平衡计分卡绩效评价系统,构建比较全面、平衡和具有战略性的低保资金绩效评价指标体系,并合理设定指标内涵、评价标准及指标权重,以确保评价的全面性、科学性,有利于发现既有低保制度中的问题并及时改进。     

Factual accounting in the discourse on homelessness

Discussions about homelessness can be approached as action that constructs social reality. From this point of view, an important finding in the analysis of interviews with four leading politicians is the number of rhetorical devices the speakers use in factual accounting: to make the state of affairs and events around homelessness appear as obvious facts, a reflection of reality. Five strategies of factual accounting are identified in this article: the witness strategy (the speaker has seen or heard the facts him- or herself), no alternatives strategy ("this is the only way to act"), the quantification strategy (warranting by means of figures and/or nonnumerical quantification), the social norms strategy (appealing to consensually accepted issues) and the expertise strategy (appealing to specialized knowledge). These strategies are used by the speakers to warrant the truth of facts that in many ways are more than likely to contribute to homelessness. Above all, they create an image of a static housing problem for which there is no remedy. It is, however, possible to alter this static picture if we start from the assumption that there are two sides to every issue. It is possible to argue against facts offered as true; the housing problem may not be so static after all, and solving it may not be so hopeless.     

Research in the concept‐based therapeutic community – its importance to European treatment research in the drug field1

The concept‐based therapeutic community (TC) has been more scrutinised than almost every treatment model in the drug field except for methadone maintenance treatment. Important reasons for emphasising research right from the beginning were financial and/or ideological. Because of strong, ideological reasons and because of extensive research, the American TC movement has had a great impact on the treatment field of drug abusers in Europe. However, independent of the TC movement, at the same time the European treatment field also initiated several important research projects. In particular the Scandinavian countries were active in process studies with a qualitative approach. For different reasons this research tradition in Scandinavia was never considered important in the international research society. In recent years this has changed, and there is now a consensus about the need for more process evaluation and phenomenological research to complement the large body of quantitative studies in the treatment field. Probably both American and European treatment research has contributed to the preservation of the best from the original TC models and a renunciation of the more destructive elements.     

社会环境影响道德评价合理性的诸因素分析

在道德评价中,影响评价合理性的社会环境因素主要有习俗禁忌及戒律、社会舆论、社会价值观念以及道德境遇与运气等,上述因素对评价主体的评价标准、评价方式、评价过程以及评价结论均有不同程度的影响。因此,在评价中,我们既应看到社会环境因素对道德评价带来的积极影响,也应当避免或克服其对道德评价造成的消极影响,尽量采取评价中立,客观、公正、科学地作出道德评价。     

基于神经网络的情境学习绩效评价模型研究

以计算机和网络为标志的信息技术,为情境学习绩效评价构建了开放系统。采用BP神经网络可以建立情境学习评价系统的数学模型,学习者在学习过程中根据情境学习绩效指标对学习过程进行评价,并将动态评价结果输入到BP神经网络模型中,则学习者情境学习绩效评价值就可以比较真实地表现出来了。这是基于神经网络技术,在情境学习理论指导下,对情境学习绩效评价理论和实践的探索。