Evaluation is a set of research methods and associated methodologies with a distinctive purpose. They provide a means to judge actions and activities in terms of values, criteria and standards. At the same time evaluation is also a practice that seeks to enhance effectiveness in the public sphere and policy making. In order to improve as well as judge, there is a need to explain what happens and would have to be done differently for different outcomes to be achieved. It is in this explanatory mode that evaluation overlaps most directly with mainstream social science. This collection offers a complete guide to evaluations research methods. It is organized in four volumes. Volume 1 focuses on foundation issues and includes sections on the rationale for evaluation, central methodological debates, the role of theory and applying values, criteria and standards. Volume 2 examines explaining through evaluation and covers sections on experimentation and causal inference, outcomes and inputs, socio-economic indicators, economics and cost benefit approaches and realist methods. Volume 3 addresses qualitative methods and includes sections on case studies, responsive, developmental and accompanying evaluation, participation and empowerment, constructivism and postmodernism and multi-criteria and classificatory methods. Volume 4 concentrates on evaluation to improve policy with sections on performance management, systematic reviews, institutionalization and utilization and policy learning and design. The collection offers a unique and unparalleled guide to this rapidly expanding research method. It demonstrates how method and theory are applied in policy and strategy and will be an invaluable addition to any social science library. Elliot Stern is the editor of Evaluation: the International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, and works both as an independent consultant. He was previously Principal Advisor for evaluation studies at the Tavistock Institute, London.

Table of Contents:
VOLUME ONE PART ONE: FOUNDATIONS ISSUES IN EVALUATION SECTION ONE: TYPOLOGIES AND PARADIGMS The Logic of Evaluation and Evaluation Practice - Michael Scriven Evaluation as Sensemaking - George Julnes and Melvin M Mark Knowledge Construction in a Realist World Establishing Evaluative Conclusions - Deborah M Fournier A Distinction between General and Working Logic Evaluation as Practical Hermeneutics - Thomas A Schwandt In with the New - Ray Pawson and Nick Tilley Introducing Scientific Realism A Theoretical Framework and Grid for Analysis of Programme-Evaluation Practices - Michel Demarteau Policy Evaluation and Learning - Peter van der Knaap Feedback, Enlightenment or Argumentation? Merit Criteria and Performance Standards - Evert Vedung Public Managers amidst Ambiguity - Tineke A Abma and Mirko Noordegraaf Towards a Typology of Evaluative Practices in Public Management SECTION TWO: ETHICS AND VALUES Evaluation as Advocacy - Jennifer C Greene How We Inhabit our Evaluations - Saville Kushner Research on Evaluation Ethics - Michael Morris What Have we Learned and Why Is It Important? Anything Goes - Clem Adelman Evaluation and Relativism The Limits of Constructivism in Evaluation - Saville Kushner The Future of Ethics in Evaluation - Dianna L Newman Developing the Dialogue SECTION THREE: QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DEBATES Specifying Inquiry Modes - Melvin M Mark, Gary T Henry and George Julnes Philosophy of Science and the Quantitative - Qualitative Debates - William R Shadish Thirteen Common Errors The Foundations of Qualitative Research - Dawn Snape and Liz Spencer VOLUME TWO PART TWO: EVALUATION PRACTICE FOR ENGAGEMENT SECTION ONE: CASE STUDIES AND DIALOGICAL METHODS The Abridged Version of Case Study Research - Robert K Yin Design and Method A Dialogical, Story-Based Evaluation Tool - Jessica Dart and Rick Davies The Most Significant Change Technique Stake′s Responsive Evaluation - Tineke A Abma and Robert E Stake Core Ideas and Evolution SECTION TWO: PARTICIPATION AND EMPOWERMENT Deliberative Democratic Evaluation in Practice - Ernest R House and Kenneth R Howe Empowerment Evaluation - David M Fetterman Participatory Program Planning - Laura Nichols Including Program Participants and Evaluators Democratic Evaluation - Beatrice Floc′hlay and Eric Plottu From Empowerment Evaluation to Public Decision-Making Participatory Evaluation in a Community Organization: Fostering Stakeholder Empowerment and Utilization - Danielle Papineau and Margaret C Kiely SECTION THREE: COMBINING METHODS AND DATA Toward a Conceptual Framework for Mixed-Method Evaluation Designs - Jennifer C Greene, Valerie J Caracelli and Wendy F Graham An Example of Qualitative Research Methods in Realist Evaluation - Mansoor A F Kazi From Puzzles to Problems - Daniel J McLinden and William MK Trochim Assessing the Value of Education in a Business Context with Concept Mapping and Pattern Matching Qualitative Evaluations, Combined Methods and Key Challenges - Jeff Hearn, John Lawler and George Dowswell General Lessons from the Qualitative Evaluation of Community Intervention in Stroke Rehabilitation SECTION FOUR: PLANNING AND MANAGING EVALUATION Beginning an Evaluation with RUFDATA - Murray Saunders Theorizing a Practical Approach to Evaluation Planning Evaluability Assessment - M F Smith Reflections on the Process Method RENOMO - A Design Tool for Evaluations - Wolfgang Beywl and Philip Potter Designing Evaluations Responsive to Stakeholders′ Interests by Working with Nominal Groups using the Moderation SECTION FIVE: MULTI-SITE AND MULTI-LEVEL EVALUATION A Framework for Understanding and Improving Multisite Evaluations - Roger B Straw and James M Herrell Conceptual Challenges Confronting Cluster Evaluation - Blaine R Worthen and Constance C Schmitz Local Evaluation in a National Early Years Excellence Centres Pilot Programme: Integrating Performance Management and Participatory Evaluation - Colin Biott and Tina Cook Evaluative Site Visits - Frances Lawrenz, Nanette Keiser and Bethann Lavoie A Methodological Review VOLUME THREE PART THREE: EXPLANATORY AND ECONOMIC MODELS SECTION ONE: PROGRAMME THEORY AND LOGIC MODELS Program Theory - Patricia J Rogers Not Whether Programs Work but How They Work Theory-Driven Program Evaluation in the New Millennium - Stewart I Donaldson Logic Models - John A McLaughlin and Gretchen B Jordan A Tool for Telling Your Programs Performance Story Implementing a Theory of Change Evaluation in the Cleveland Community-Building Initiative - Sharon Milligan et al A Case Study Integrating a Comparison Group Design into a Theory of Change Evaluation - Beth C Weitzman, Diana Silver and Keri-Nicole Dillman The Case of the Urban Health Initiative A Pattern-Matching Approach to Link Program Theory and Evaluation Data - Jules M Marquart Reconstructing Program Theories: Methods Available and Problems to be Solved - Frans L Leeuw SECTION TWO: EXPERIMENTS AND THEIR LIMITS Reforms as Experiments - Donald T Campbell The False Choice between Theory-Based Evaluation and Experimentation - Thomas D Cook Methods for the Experimenting Society - Donald T Campbell The Randomised Trial - Lone Scocozza A Critique from the Philosophy of Science Should Evaluation be Freed from Its Causal Links? An Answer Illustrated by European Economic Development Policies - Jacques Toulemonde SECTION THREE: ECONOMICS AND COSTS Economic Evaluation in the Social Welfare Field - Tom A J Sefton Making Ends Meet Cost-Analysis Approaches in Evaluation and Decision Making - Henry M Levin and Patrick J McEwan Policy Evaluation and the Concepts of Deadweight and Additionality - James J McEldowney A Commentary The Limits of Cost Benefit Evaluation - Ernest R House Ethical Issues in Cost-Effectiveness Analysis - Steven D Pinkerton et al PART FOUR: STRENGTHENING POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES SECTION ONE: PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND OUTCOMES Evaluation Research and the Performance Management Movement - Ann Bonar Blalock From Estrangement to Useful Integration? Outcomes and the Problem - Lawrence B Mohr VOLUME FOUR PART FOUR: STRENGTHENING POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES (continued) SECTION ONE: PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND OUTCOMES (continued) Bridging the Macro and Micro Levels in Outcome Evaluation - Ingrid M E Munck Evaluation and the Social Construction of Impacts - Frans-Bauke van der Meer Effectiveness in Health Promotion - Keith Tones Indicators and Evidence of Success Desk Screening of Development Projects - Nathalie Holvoet and Robrecht Renard Is It Effective? Effective Use and Misuse of Performance Measurement - Burt Perrin Opportunities for Program Evaluators to Facilitate Performance-Based Management - M A Scheirer and K Newcomer SECTION TWO: CAPACITY AND UTILISATION Developing Systematic Internal Evaluation - Arnold J Love Improving the Quality of Internal Evaluation - Rosalie T Torres The Evaluator as Consultant-Mediator Internal Evaluation - Jonathan A Morell A Synthesis of Traditional Methods and Industrial Engineering Have We Learned Anything New about the Use of Evaluation? - Carol H Weiss The Evaluator′s Responsibility for Utilization - Michael Quinn Patton Building Evaluation Capacity within Organisations - Richard C Sonnichsen Evaluation Utilization as Argumentation - Ville Valovirta SECTION THREE: POLICY, EVIDENCE AND LEARNING Evaluation for Decisions - Carol H Weiss Is Anybody There? Does Anybody Care? From Knowing to Doing - Sandra Nutley, Isabel Walter and Huw T O Davies A Framework for Understanding the Evidence-Into-Practice Agenda Evidence-Based Policy - Ray Pawson In Search of a Method Evidence-Based Policy - Ray Pawson The Promise of `Realist Synthesis′ Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches to Implementation Research - Paul A Sabatier Towards an Evaluation of the Effects of Laws - Sidsel Sverdrup Utilizing Time-Series Data of Complaints