"Evaluation: A Systematic Approach is the best-selling comprehensive introduction to the field of program evaluation, covering the range of evaluation research activities used in appraising the design, implementation, effectiveness, and efficiency of social programs. Evaluation domains are presented in a coherent framework that not only explores each, but recognizes their interrelationships, their role in improving social programs and the outcomes they are designed to affect, and their embeddedness in social and political context. Relied on as the “gold standard” by professors, students, and practitioners for 40 years, the new Eighth Edition includes a new practical chapter on planning an evaluation, entirely new examples throughout, and a major re-organization of the book’s content to better serve the needs of program evaluation courses." (Publisher description)
1 What Is Program Evaluation and Why Is It Needed? 1
2 Social Problems and Assessing the Need for a Program, 31
3 Assessing Program Theory and Design, 59
4 Assessing Program Process and Implementation, 91
5 Measuring and Monitoring Program Outcomes, 115
6 Impact Evaluation: Isolating the Effects of Social Programs in the Real World, 141
7 Impact Evaluation: Comparison Group Designs, 157
8 Impact Evaluation: Designs With Strict Controls on Program Access, 185
9 Detecting, Interpreting, and Exploring Program Effects, 211
10 Assessing the Economic Efficiency of Programs, 237
11 Planning an Evaluation, 265
12 The Social and Political Context of Evaluation, 291