Customer Reviews

Evaluation: A Systematic Approach

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While this is a good resource book to sit on the shelf, it is not an interesting, insightful, or enjoyable read. It is one of the most boring textbooks I have ever had to read. My professor was right: I will use this when I am a practitioner, but as a student, it is tough to get through. There are MANY, MANY spelling mistakes. Whoever edited this book should be ashamed. I can't wait until I am done this class so i never have to read through the book again. STUDENT TIP: Don't bother reading each chapter in its entirety; only read the summaries at the end of each chapter.

I found this book to be moderately helpful, although I found the format to be somewhat cubersome and confusing. In order to successfully write an evaluation proposal I had to use this book in tandem with other resources. There are plenty of foundations that offer step-by-step guidelines for conducting an evaluation, for free. This book is not worth its cost.

It is always hard to keep personal bias out of the picture when evaluating an employee or coworker. This book understands that concept and goes beyond other books to demonstrate exactly how to do just that!

This book is essential for anyone considering evaluation.
It covers all the basics and although the text can be dry, it is full of case studies to supplement the text.

This book was informative, but I found it difficult to read. There was a lot of information I felt was repeated or dragged out unnecessarily.

The prose in this book is so convoluted and each point takes so long to develop that you'll be soon asleep.

What's worse, the book is neither a solid academic overview of the field nor is it a useful handbook for the practitioner.

Rossi and his co-authors make many attempts to give us the grand theoretical frameworks but they quickly get lost in qualifying themselves into a tepid soup in which nothing is ever black or white, hot or cold, true or false.

Although there are some capsule summaries and references to real programmes, these callouts are helpful only to break the tedium. They are not presented in sufficient detail that normal people could ever learn from them. There is never any clear instruction about how one should begin an evaluation or how one should proceed.

Possibly this book is useful for an intermediate-to-advanced evaluation practitioner who is interested in comparing his broad generalizations with Rossi's.

This book works well as an introductory textbook to the field of Evaluation -- including a brief history of its origins, essential components of evaluation, theory, and designs.

If you are looking for a class in Evaluation 101, or a refresher course on the principles of evaluation, this is a good textbook for you.

I am in the process of reading the 6th edition cover to cover (something I never do), and have hopped on line to order the latest edition so that I can upgrade.

Rossi has a sense of humor that he shares in his book. I laughed outloud. For a dry toast title, it was not too hard to read. By the way, if you are in a hurry, read chapter 13 first.

Lots of fluf, hard to read, harder to generate interest. 90% of this book is useless content, written only for the author's self-gratification and an egotistical infatuation with admiring their own complex writing style. Good opportunity for the writers to show off at a cocktail party among other PHDs, not very good for students.

It is an excellent text both as a University course requirement and for social elevation. The authors provide such a wide array of cases in the texts that are social and policy issues in the United States that are also issues in Canada and other parts of the world. The notion of greater good of the society is so valuable as to raise the social consience.