Taylor & Francis Program Evaluation, Third Edition: Forms and Approaches

Program Evaluation, Third Edition, provides a conceptual and practical overview of the evaluation process in real-world educational, organizational, and social service settings. Using an issues-driven perspective, Owen helps students and practitioners compare and select from an array of evaluation approaches by providing an original conceptual framework for the five major forms of evaluative inquiry: proactive, clarificative, interactive, monitoring, and impact. Review Program Evaluation, Third Edition, has the hallmarks of thoroughness, insight, and fluency of other editions, but brings us up to date with a map of the evaluation territory which new travelers will find invaluable.--Murray Saunders, Lancaster University, UK Excellent for use as an introductory text--practical, clear, concise, and straight to the point.--Ernie House, School of Education, University of Colorado at Boulder Owen maintains that it is important to understand the 'what' and the 'why' of an evaluation and select the distinct 'epistemological cluster' that best fits the issues that need to be addressed in the evaluation. He insightfully captures these complexities of evaluative work and outlines, in an accessible format, all the many considerations needed in order to truly serve the information needs of all sorts of evaluands.--From the Foreword by Marvin C. Alkin, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Los Angeles It is rare to find a book that provides a nicely organized discussion of the approaches to evaluation, as well as hands-on information on managing evaluation, evaluation ethics, different evaluation philosophies, and utilization of evaluation. I especially liked the distinction among the various interventions that are the focus of evaluations, and the charts of the forms of evaluation. I also liked the focus on planning and diagnostic evaluation. The graphics are excellent, and Owen makes good use of inset boxes for examples. I would use the book in an introductory evaluation class to provide students with a roadmap of evaluation approaches and techniques and when and why to use them. This is one of only a few available texts that assemble techniques and approaches used in various countries across the world, and thus it should appeal to a wide audience.--Debra J. Rog, Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement, Vanderbilt University - About the Author John M. Owen is Principal Fellow at the Centre for Program Evaluation at the University of Melbourne, Australia.