The purpose of the "Drivers Best Practices Assessment" ("DBPA") is to assist organizations in assessing their current supports and resources for quality use of selected programs or practices. Specifically, organizations can use it to: (1) Identify strengths and opportunities for improvement in their current supports and…

The chapter explores critical roles of internal evaluators in contemporary organizational settings. The need is highlighted for an expanded, reconfigured, unorthodox set of roles and styles of work to meet the needs of the emerging learning organizations effectively. A discussion of major categories of internal evaluator roles emerged from the…

Effective, efficient, and sustainable ID/DD organizations: are they possible in today's world of dwindling resources and mounting demands for more and better services? Yes--with the practical tools and strategies in this lifeline for ID/DD leaders. Developed by two of the most trusted authorities in the disability field, this innovative business…

This research brief describes how to conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis. The first task is to find out if there are differences in the costs of operating program alternatives through the following steps: (1) describing each program alternative and its components and potential benefits; (2) determining the costs of the alternatives by…

The "balanced scorecard" approach for making holistic decisions about organizational change offers a framework for analyzing four critical organizational perspectives (financial, customer, internal business, learning/innovation), using specific indicators of success that focus on the organization's vision or mission. It can be used…

This guidebook, the final in a series of three, serves as a work action plan to help educators and educational administrators in implementing and evaluating new programs and instructional materials. Checklists of the various kinds of materials necessary for the implementation of an educational program are provided, along with hints about the most…

Explores implications for evaluation practice of using five different perspectives on organizations, drawing on the four models of social program implementation developed by R. F. Elmore (1978). It is argued that evaluation will only really be effective when its focus, methods, and management reflect realistic assumptions about how organizations…

The process of developing program evaluation models for Florida International University's college of education is described. One lesson learned was that a combination of macro- and microlevel planning is necessary for purposeful evaluation. A grid to aid decision making is also presented. (Author/MSE)

Evaluation within human service organizations is defined in terms of accepted evaluation criteria, with reasonable expectations shown and structured into a model of systematic evaluation practice. The evaluation criteria of program effort, performance, adequacy, efficiency and process mechanisms are discussed, along with measurement information…

Mental health center administrators are concerned about persons who contact centers but fail to keep initial appointments. Factors within centers that discourage client follow-through must be identified and changed. Telephone surveys were attempted for 50 such individuals from the youth (N=23) and adult (N=27) team logs of the Weber Mental Health…

A Performance Analysis for Training (PAT) Model was developed and validated for use in analyzing an organization's performance needs that can be solved with training. The PAT Model incorporated the perspectives of both theorists and practitioners on training needs assessment. Three training needs assessment experts evaluated its content and face…

Seven papers suggest ways in which theory informs evaluation research in the area of energy conservation. Perspectives of epistemology and methodology and political and bureaucratic issues are addressed. Examples show how theoretically informed concepts and propositions about personal choice and organizational process contribute to knowledge about…

As part of a project to learn more about the technical assistance process of helping high needs schools to develop the organizational capacity to support effective school performance, this study examined changes after two years of technical assistance delivery in a high needs school district. The district was in a rural area with one elementary…

The question, "Do planning techniques make a difference, and if so, to whom, and for what purpose?" was addressed by studying master planning, resource allocation, and program evaluation in several large, research-oriented universities. Observations regarding perceived utility and problems associated with these activities are discussed.…

Organizational development (OD) is a systematic approach to (1) identifying the needs, problems, and objectives of an organization; (2) providing feedback needed for decisions regarding design and implementation of change strategies; (3) implementing and monitoring actions; and (4) evaluating their effects. Decisions in all phases of OD are…