Certain challenges are inherent in collecting data to evaluate nonformal education programs and settings. One challenge relates to the complexity of the educational system in which nonformal learning takes place. Separating the learning effects of a nonformal education program on participants from the effects of other essential elements of their…

The opportunity that evaluators have to be educators is well known. Patton emphatically states, "Every interaction with an evaluation client, participant, stakeholder, and user is a teaching opportunity." This article discusses two ways in which evaluators can help educate the staff of nonformal programs: helping them articulate the theory that…

For years, spending by the King County (Seattle, Washington) corrections department consumed a growing share of the county operating budget, and the department accrued a backlog of needed capital investments. At the same time, there was a history of mistrust between the county council and department management, which centered on whether the…

Crude mental models should take priority over designs in guiding evaluative inquiry. Three illustrative mental models are shown to have implications for how method mixing is carried out in practice. One of the models, a complex and contextually contingent model, is applied to the Arizona Student Assessment Program. (SLD)

Describes the evaluation training method developed by the San Francisco, California Youth in Focus program and presents three case studies illustrating this organization's approach to bringing youth and community development together. (SLD)

Describes the Youth Development Learning Network's extended evaluation, a collaboration of funders, program administrators, youth workers, and evaluators, that illustrates the process of building capacity for youth and youth workers. (SLD)

Describes the participatory evaluation methods developed so that children participating in children's clubs in Nepal could use them in periodic reviews of their own functioning as creators of democratic organizations. (SLD)

Discusses the challenges of implementing a feminist evaluation approach in the context of evaluating an adolescent violence-prevention program. Presents seven guidelines for conducting feminist program evaluation and analyzes and critiques these guidelines. (SLD)

Describes the scope of evaluation efforts of the Even Start family literacy program to date, summarizing the evaluation strategies, rationale, intended audience, and findings. Discusses the different lenses offered by evaluation at state and local levels. (SLD)

Discusses the challenges facing evaluators of welfare reform and the ways that multiple methods can be combined to meet these challenges. Describes the studies reported in this issue. (Author/SLD)

Highlights differences related to the ethics of the evaluation situation for internal and external evaluators and differences related to the attention evaluators pay to the ethics of the evaluand. Internal and external evaluations occupy different "communities," and it is the nature of those communities that is critical for the…

In the last 10 years, there has been increased use of case study methodology, with accompanying refinement and improvement of the methods. Case studies have become legitimate research methods in evaluation, but it is too soon to say whether improvements in methodology are really resulting in improvements in the case studies conducted. (SLD)

Asserts that pursuing use as the defining goal of evaluation can distort the allocation of evaluation resources and reduce the contributions of evaluation to broader social goals, such as social betterment. Pursuing use can result in an overemphasis on evaluations oriented toward program improvement at the expense of assessment of worth and other…

Offers a critical commentary on theory-based evaluation, stressing its utility as a method of program planning and as an adjunct to experiments but rejecting it as an alternative to experiments. Cites seven reasons for doubting that theory-based evaluations can provide the valid conclusions about a program's causal effects that proponents have…

Provides a detailed description of diverse data collection tools based on the World Wide Web and enumerates their advantages, disadvantages, and logistical challenges. Web-based data collection can offer cost-effective, flexible, and timely solutions to many evaluation needs. (Author/SLD)