The SAGE Handbook of Evaluation

Ian Shaw, Jennifer C Greene, Melvin M Mark, Ian Shaw, Jennifer C Greene, Melvin M Mark

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN: 9781446270554, 9780761973058
• eBook ISBN: 9781446207000
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Research & Methodology
• Index: Social Sciences

?This handbook thoroughly covers all aspects of evaluation, yet isn?t too technical to understand. It offers everything an organization needs to know to get the most out of evaluation? - Nonprofit World

`The Handbook succeeds in capturing and presenting evaluation?s extensive knowledge base within a global context. In so doing it provides a useful, coherent and definitive benchmark on the field?s diverse and dynamic purposes, practices, theories, approaches, issues, and challenges for the 21st century. The Handbook is an essential reference and map for any serious evaluation practitioner, scholar and student anywhere in the world? - Michael Quinn Patton, author of Utilization-Focused Evaluation

`Readers of this volume will find a set of texts that provide an evocative overview of contemporary thinking in the world of evaluation. This is not a book of simple tips. It does justice to the complex realities of evaluation practice by bringing together some of the best practitioners in the world to reflect on its current state. It is theoretically sophisticated yet eminently readable, anchored in evaluation as it is undertaken in a variety of domains. It is the kind of book that startles a little and makes you think. I highly recommend it? - Murray Saunders, University of Lancaster

In this comprehensive handbook, an examination of the complexities of contemporary evaluation contributes to the ongoing dialogue that arises in professional efforts to evaluate people-related programs, policies and practices.

The SAGE Handbook of Evaluation is a unique and authoritative resource consisting of 25 chapters covering a range of evaluation theories and techniques in a single, accessible volume. With contributions from world-leading figures in their fields overseen by an eminent international editorial board, this handbook is an extensive and user-friendly resource organised in four coherent sections:

" Role and Purpose of Evaluation in Society;

" Evaluation as a Social Practice;

" The Practice of Evaluation;

" Domains of Evaluation Practice.

The Handbook of Evaluation is written for practicing evaluators, academics, advanced postgraduate students and evaluation clients and offers a definitive, benchmark statement on evaluation theory and practice for the first decades of the 21st century.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• About the Editors
• International Advisory Board
• Contributors
• Introduction: The evaluation of policies, programs and practices
• Part I: Role and purpose of evaluation in society
• Chapter 1 - The purposes of evaluation in a democratic society
• Chapter 2 - Roles for theory in contemporary evaluation practice: Developing practical knowledge
• Chapter 3 - Evaluation for practice improvement and organizational learning
• Chapter 4 - Evaluation and the study of lived experience
• Chapter 5 - Evaluation democracy, and social change
• Chapter 6 - Evaluation after disenchantment? Five issues shaping the role of evaluation in society
• Part II: Evaluation as a social practice
• Chapter 7 - Government as structural context for evaluation
• Chapter 8 - The social relations of evaluation
• Chapter 9 - Intellectual contexts
• Chapter 10 - The relationship between evaluation and politics
• Chapter 11 - Ethics in evaluation
• Chapter 12 - A comparative analysis of evaluation utilization and its cognate fields of inquiry: Current issues and trends
• Chapter 13 - Contextual challenges for evaluation practice
• Part III: The practice of evaluation
• Chapter 14 - Methods for policy-making and knowledge development evaluations
• Chapter 15 - Embedding improvements, lived experience, and social justice in evaluation practice
• Chapter 16 - Managing evaluations
• Chapter 17 - Communicating Evaluation
• Chapter 18 - On discerning quality in evaluation
• Chapter 19 - The practice of evaluation: Challenges and new directions
• Part IV: Domains of evaluation practice
• Chapter 20 - Evaluation in education
• Chapter 21 - Evaluation of health services: Reflections on practice
• Chapter 22 - Social work and the human services
• Chapter 23 - Evaluation in criminal justice
• Chapter 24 - Evaluation of development interventions and humanitarian action
• Chapter 25 - Evidence-based evaluation in different professional domains: Similarities, differences and challenges
• Author Index
• Subject Index