Seven chapters present 31 propositions challenging traditional ideas about the nature and practice of program evaluation. Methods to improve evaluation models and approaches and ways to address intermediate and advanced evaluation issues are explored. The discussion also serves as an introduction to the most analytical and comprehensive of the…

Three articles on evaluation in the Federal government describe a decline in budget and staff support, narrowing of the agenda to internal management issues, and the subordination of evaluation to other functions. Issues for the future of Federal government evaluation are discussed. (SLD)

This background paper on refugee needs assessment discusses the assumptions, goals, objectives, strategies, models, and methods that the state refugee programs can consider in designing their strategies for assessing the mental health needs of refugees. It begins with a set of background assumptions about the ethnic profile of recent refugee…

Evaluation research is no longer taught solely as a technical-scientific pursuit, but is now moving toward a policy-oriented discipline. Psychological skills in a political context can strengthen technical contributions of evaluators. (LMO)

The guide describes an assessment procedure that can be used by sparsely populated communities located near a potential development to help predict where the incoming population will choose to live and shop. First, a numerical model, the "gravity model," is presented which utilizes community size and the distance from the community to…

This booklet, which was produced as a follow-up to the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education, examines monitoring adult learning for knowledge-based policymaking. The following are among the topics discussed in the booklet: (1) the need to reconstruct the reality of adult learning in consideration of the concepts of lifelong learning…