Surveyed members of the American Evaluation Association for their reaction to scenarios of informed consent, impartial reporting, and stakeholder involvement in which an evaluator acted in an ethically problematic way. Found significant disagreement among evaluators, with conflicting interpretations of the scenarios. (SLD)

Opposes the practice of aggregating impacts on outcome dimensions to arrive at one summary assessment of program merit. Suggests that impacts should be kept separate and unweighted, expressed in their own measurement scales. Illustrates this method through an evaluation of the effects of research grants on a university. (SLD)

Studied the assignment of economics journals to different quartiles of citation-based rankings, a measure of journal quality that has implications for evaluating research output and academic promotions. Found that about 60% of journals remain in the same quartile, and about 95% remain the same or move up within 5- to 10-year intervals, suggesting…

The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) program measures value added in colleges and universities, by testing the ability of freshmen and seniors to think logically and write clearly. The program is popular enough that it has attracted critics. In this paper, we outline the methods used by the CLA to determine value added. We summarize the…

The chronic and relapsing nature of substance abuse points to the need for continuing care after a primary phase of treatment. This article reviews the economic studies of continuing care, discusses research gaps, highlights some of the challenges of conducting rigorous economic evaluations of continuing care, and offers research guidelines and…

A meta-program theory is proposed to overcome the limitations and improve the use of program theory as an approach to faith-based program evaluation. The essentials for understanding religious organizations, their various programs, and faith and spirituality are discussed to support a rationale for developing a faith-based program theory that…

This paper discusses conceptual and methodological issues surrounding the measurement of the construct, degree of implementation, drawn from a review of 74 previous studies which included such measures. Assessments against five measurement criteria indicate that an adequate scientific bias has not been established for this construct. (Author/PN)

Comments on the delayed treatment design are offered as an amendment to the Heath et al. discussion by pointing out two important assumptions of their recommended design, and tracing through implications of those assumptions for the interpretation of treatment effects. (Author/PN)

The impact of a legal reform on child abuse reporting in the District of Columbia is evaluated. Results suggest that reporting legislation may be useful in reform efforts by extending the requirements to new groups and precipitating efforts to implement legal requirements of those already required to report. (Author/GK)

Discusses potential sources of self-selection bias in quasi-experimental evaluations of whole-school reform and considers how individual school-level data might be used to provide valid impact estimates. Develops an instrumental variable strategy that can be used to improve on common value-added estimators when only post-treatment measures are…

An ex ante benefit-cost analysis was conducted of applied tree improvement programs in the North Central Region from 1986 through the year 2030. Results for 24 tree species indicate that ex ante evaluation of the programs is difficult, but the intuition of professionals has built-in efficiency considerations. (TJH)

The problem associated with evaluating an econometric model using values outside those used in the model estimation is illustrated in the evaluations of a residential load management program during each of two successive years. Analysis reveals that attention must be paid to this problem. (Author/TJH)

Describes a program evaluation system in which the review of programs' definitions of success serve as indicators of stated goals and changes in programs. Review of definitions of success of eight programs suggests information that programs want to use in making decisions across the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delinquency prevention services. (SLD)

Studied the analytic problems associated with a design in which one identifiable group is allocated to each treatment condition and members of these groups are measured to assess the intervention. Results from a simulation study underscore the analytic problems associated with these quasi-experimental or group-randomized designs. (SLD)

Evaluation of teaching at universities is traditionally realized in terms of student ratings. Curriculum evaluation is rarely done in a systematic manner. More often, the emphasis is placed on a particular aspect, which is only of little help in terms of modifying education. A very prominent example is that of medical education. Here, evaluations…