Customer Reviews

Program Evaluation: Alternative Approaches and Practical Guidelines (3rd Edition)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've been using this book as a resource for evaluating programs at our college and for my doctoral research. The book is well organized and contains several examples and paradigms with which to evaluate programs in both govermental and corporate settings. Expensive book but one that you'll keep handy!

This text surveys evaluation theory and practice in a manner that is easy to understand and teach. It's appropriate for undergraduate or graduate work in performance evaluation. The authors do an excellent job of reviewing the history and key literature. They also briefly explain popular methodologies and discuss different approaches, such as objective and holistic. The book includes case study material that highlights processes, advantages, drawbacks, and potential problems of evaluation efforts. The authors avoid consulting hype and focus on building the evaluation body of knowledge. An update with Fitzpatrick listed as the first author is now available and also is excellent.

This text was pretty exhaustive but they should have included several examples of evaluations, executive reports, etc. It would have been interesting to study the types of evaluations and read some mock or real evaluation reports or mock journal entries listing information gathering processes, focus group meetings, etc. in each style.
They used a few limited journal entry examples but something that really lays out the whole process would have been better. The book is quite technical, perhaps at the expense of overlooking the energy and passion that evaluators need for themselves and to bring out in their stakeholders. Our professor actually had to use an additional book (Action Research by Stringer) to add that component. At the price we paid this text should have also covered more of that perspective. This book is ridiculously expensive. Surely they could lower the prices a bit and still make a great profit. I think that students being hit with huge tuition costs are getting tired of these outrageous book prices. The authors really know their stuff and I learned a lot from the book.
I don't begrudge them for making a profit for such a scholarly work but I'd love to know how they (the publishers)can justify such a cost for a book.
All in all a good text especially covering the component parts of evaluations, types of evaluations, evolution of the science, and the ethical issues that evaluators face.

This book is used as a text book in my graduate class on evaluation in Instructional Technology. The book is clear, easy to understand, thorough and a good "primer" on evaluation.

This book was easy to read and gave excellent examples and case studies. it was short and to the point and didn't drag on an idea. It was also informative in that it gave you when it was the author's bias or actual studied facts.

I took a class in program evaluation and found this book to be a lifesaver. It was not required but I think it should be since it is packed with useful evaluation information.

I received the book quickly after I ordered it! It was in great condition just as the seller had said.

THis is an easily written text that has a good amount of information that is useful. THe book should be part of your professional library.

This book has been instrumental in helping me evaluate a non-profit's program. Good overview of evaluation.

If you're new to the field then Program Evaluation provides a framework which makes sense of the various approaches. The authors have an easy style, sparing the reader from unnecessary jargon where they can. The introductory chapters provide a brief philosophical and ideological background to alternative approaches to evaluation. I came across this text during an introductory course in Instructional Design so it helped to place evaluation with what I had already covered on learning theory.