What adaptations would make the program more effective?
Introduction to Evaluation
the world are facing challenging economic problems that touch every aspect of so- ciety. The policies and programs created to address these problems will require evaluation to determine which solutions to pursue and which programs and poli- cies are working and which are not. Each new decade seems to add to the list of challenges, as society and the problems it confronts become increasingly complex.
As society’s concern over these pervasive and perplexing problems has intensified, so have its efforts to resolve them. Collectively, local, regional, national, and international agencies have initiated many programs aimed at eliminating these problems or their underlying causes. In some cases, specific programs judged to have been ineffective have been “mothballed” or sunk outright, often to be replaced by a new program designed to attack the problem in a different—and, hopefully, more effective—manner.
In more recent years, scarce resources and budget deficits have posed still more challenges as administrators and program managers have had to struggle to keep their most promising programs afloat. Increasingly, policymakers and man- agers have been faced with tough choices, being forced to cancel some programs or program components to provide sufficient funds to start new programs, to con- tinue others, or simply to keep within current budgetary limits.
To make such choices intelligently, policy makers need good information about the relative effectiveness of programs. Which programs are working well? Which are failing? What are the programs’ relative costs and benefits? Similarly, each program manager needs to know how well different parts of programs are working. What can be done to improve those parts of the program that are not working as well as they should? Have all aspects of the program been thought through carefully at the planning stage, or is more planning needed? What is the theory or logic model for the program’s effectiveness? What adaptations would make the program more effective?
Answering such questions is the major task of program evaluation. The ma- jor task of this book is to introduce you to evaluation and the vital role it plays in virtually every sector of modern society. However, before we can hope to convince you that good evaluation is an essential part of good programs, we must help you understand at least the basic concepts in each of the following areas:
• How we—and others—define evaluation • How formal and informal evaluation differ • The basic purposes—and various uses—of formal evaluation • The distinction between basic types of evaluation • The distinction between internal and external evaluators • Evaluation’s importance and its limitations
Covering all of those areas thoroughly could fill a whole book, not just one chapter of an introductory text. In this chapter, we provide only brief coverage of each of these topics to orient you to concepts and distinctions necessary to under- stand the content of later chapters.
Chapter 1 • Evaluation’s Basic Purpose, Uses, and Conceptual Distinctions 5