Utilization-Focused Evaluation: The New Century Text [Paperback]

Michael Quinn Patton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0803952651 | ISBN-13: 978-0803952652 | Publication Date: October 30, 1996 | Edition: 3rd

Both practical and theoretical, Utilization-Focused Evaluation: The New Century Text, Third Edition tells how to conduct program evaluations and why to conduct them in the manner prescribed. Each chapter contains a review of the relevant literature and actual case examples to illustrate major points. Finally, the book offers a definite point of view developed from observing much of what has passed for program evaluation that has not been very useful.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Quinn Patton is an independent evaluation consultant with 40 years experience conducting evaluations, training evaluators, and writing about ways to make evaluation useful. He is former President of the American Evaluation Association and recipient of both the Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Award for "outstanding contributions to evaluation use and practice" and the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award for lifetime contributions to evaluation theory, both from the American Evaluation Association. The Society for Applied Sociology honored him with the Lester F. Ward Award for Outstanding Contributions to Applied Sociology.

In addition to Utilization-Focused Evaluation, he has written books on Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods, Creative Evaluation, Practical Evaluation, and Developmental Evaluation: Applying Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use. He has edited volumes on Culture and Evaluation and Teaching Evaluation Using the Case Method. He is co-author of Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed, a book that applies complexity science to social innovation.

After receiving his doctorate in Organizational Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he spent 18 years on the faculty of the University of Minnesota, including five years as Director of the Minnesota Center for Social Research. He received the University's Morse-Amoco Award for outstanding teaching.

He is a regular trainer for the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) sponsored by The World Bank each summer in Ottawa, The Evaluators’ Institute annual courses in Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Chicago, and the American Evaluation Association's professional development courses.

He has applied utilization-focused evaluation to a broad range of initiatives including anti-poverty programs, leadership development, education at all levels, human services, the environment, public health, medical education, employment training, agricultural extension, arts, criminal justice, mental health, transportation, diversity initiatives, international development, community development, systems change, policy effectiveness, managing for results, performance indicators, and effective governance. He has worked with organizations and programs at the international, national, state, provincial, and local levels, and with philanthropic, not-for-profit, private sector, international agency, and government programs. He has worked with peoples from many different cultures and perspectives.

He has three children, a musician, an engineer, and an international development practitioner, each doing a great deal of evaluation in their own distinctive ways, but, like much of the world, seldom officially calling it that. When not evaluating, he hikes the Grand Canyon, climbs mountains in Colorado, and enjoys the woods and rivers of Minnesota, kayaking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and watching the seasons change from his office overlooking the Mississippi River in Saint Paul.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc; 3rd edition (October 30, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803952651
• ISBN-13: 978-0803952652
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #369,685 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Quinn Patton lives in Minnesota where, according to the state's poet laureate, Garrison Keillor, "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average." It was this lack of interesting statistical variation in Minnesota that led him to qualitative inquiry despite the strong quantitative orientation of his doctoral studies in sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He serves on the graduate faculty of The Union Institute, a nontraditional, interdisciplinary, nonresidential and individually designed doctoral program.

He was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota for 18 years, including five years as Director of the Minnesota Center for Social Research, where he was awarded the Morse-Amoco Award for innovative teaching. He won the University of Minnesota storytelling competition and has authored several other books which include Utilization-Focused Evaluation, Creative Evaluation, Practical Evaluation, How to Use Qualitative Methods in Evaluation, and Family Sexual Abuse: Frontline Research and Evaluation.

He edited Culture and Evaluation for the journal New Direction in Program Evaluation. His creative nonfiction book, Grand Canyon Celebration: A Father-Son Journey of Discovery, was a finalist for 1999 Minnesota Book of the Year.He is former President of the American Evaluation Association and the only recipient of both the Alva and Gunner Myrdal Award for Outstanding Contributions to Useful and Practical Evaluation from the Evaluation Research Society and the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award for Lifelong Contributions to Evaluation Theory from the American Evaluation Association. The Society for Applied Sociology awarded him the 2001 Lester F. Ward Award for Outstanding Contributions to Applied Sociology.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking and easy to read, February 27, 2002

By 

"bernardlw" (Wellington NZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Utilization-Focused Evaluation: The New Century Text (Paperback)

I found this book to provide a very useful summary of a philosophy of evaluation that seems very valuable. Despite the horrible title the test is easy to read, and scattered with funny stories which may be an advantage or disadvantage depending on your perspective.

The first two parts are largely philosophical, with the later parts providing more of the practical back-up.

I am not convinced by all of Patton's arguments, but he certainly gives evaluators food for thought.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A key reference text for evaluators at all levels, April 11, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Utilization-Focused Evaluation: The New Century Text (Hardcover)

One of the most important books on evaluation ever written, and this third edition is better than ever. How to ensure that evaluation results are put to maximum use, by involving key stakeholders as true partners in the effort from start to finish. This is evalution for the new century at its finest. And fun to read as well.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overarching Evaluation Text, February 8, 2006

By 

John C. Ehlert "Arrowsun" (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Utilization-Focused Evaluation: The New Century Text (Paperback)

The U-FE framework is primarily a text about user focused evaluation. I have found this text to be both useful and comforting. The usefulness of the book begins with taking a novice evaluator, I am one, through some very basic activities to help build evaluation skills of professionals.
Patton starts with the rationale the many evaluations are unused. Then he builds his case for use throughout the entire text. He continues to develop the strengths and weaknesses of goal based and goal free evaluation. Ultimately he states that evaluations need to have use for primary users and that evaluations need to measure client outcomes. Did the program actually change, maintain, prevent something in the target population.
There are few books in any profession that admit working with human based systems is very difficult. Patton lays out the highly complex feelings and emotions that an evaluator deals with at any point in the evaluation process. I know as a teacher that sometimes our profession misses that we have a tremendous impact on students. I know that it is a platitude. Evaluation is a relatively new field with few institutions currently offering degrees in evaluation, so Patton offers a lot of insight into this highly complex and still developing field.
There are some very practical menus offered in the text as well. Approaching any consulting work with a list of viable and workable choices is a good thing. I find that understanding the choices helps me to focus on what is right for the primary users of the evaluation. Focusing on the primary intended users is good business. Not only is it good business, but I believe that working in challenging situations it is good to allow people to decide what course to take. Many criticize this approach for being to close to the program being evaluated, and I disagree with this notion. There is little evidence in my experience or in the literature to suggest that any interaction with human systems can be objective. People are smart and keeping a distance may add unintended consequences to any evaluation.
Patton is suggesting working with intended users to increase evaluation use. Evaluation that are completed and never used is a waste of time and resources. I find Patton's book helpful in keeping my interest in evaluation because I do want to be part of a world that I can help make better.