It is a special characteristic of all modern societies that people consciously decide on and plan projects designed to improve their social systems. It is their universal predicament that their projects do not always have their intended effects. It seems inevitable that in most countries this common set of problems, combined with the obvious…

Background: Turkey is a fast-developing country facing a lot of different problems. One of the problems is inadequate education. A large project was started to improve Turkish elementary education. The project includes many different purposes from physical refurbishment of school buildings, to increasing technology use in education. The author of…

Background: Return on investment (ROI) is one of the most popular evaluation metrics. ROI analysis (when applied correctly) is a powerful tool of evaluating existing information systems and making informed decisions on the acquisitions. However, practical use of the ROI is complicated by a number of uncertainties and controversies. The article…

Good evaluation requires that evaluation efforts themselves be evaluated. Many things can and often do go wrong in evaluation work. Accordingly, it is necessary to check evaluations for problems such as bias, technical error, administrative difficulties, and misuse. Such checks are needed both to improve ongoing evaluation activities and to assess…

This paper examines the practice of metaevaluation as indicated by the Metaevaluation standard of the Program Evaluation Standards, as the evaluation of a specific evaluation to inform stakeholders about the evaluation's strengths and weaknesses. The findings from an analysis of eighteen metaevaluations, including a description of the data…

The purposes of metaevaluation go beyond the traditional functions of accountability and enhancement. It helps guide strategic organizational change and legitimizes evaluation systems. Metaevaluation results can also be used to create checklists so that the persons responsible for any evaluation can revise, monitor, and control them by themselves.…

The Institute for Work, Skills and Training was assigned to evaluate a labor market program aimed at the integration of long-term unemployed individuals aged 50 or older. The integration should have been achieved not only by training and coaching of individuals, but also by building regional networks between labor market stakeholders within a…

The purpose of this article is to extend the discussion of issues currently being debated on the need for more rigorous program evaluation in educational and other sectors of research, to the field of international development evaluation, reviewing the different approaches which can be adopted to rigorous evaluation methodology and their…

This article outlines the Results-Based Evaluation (RBE) framework proposed for the ex-post assessment of the National Environmental Management Strategies (NEMS) in 12 small-island developing states (SIDS) in the South Pacific. It gives an overview of the methods and basis of developing an evaluation framework in the context of SIDS in the region.…

The evaluation literature on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) youth programs is largely absent of quantitative studies, likely in part due to the challenge of using experimental or quasi-experimental evaluation designs. This paper proposes the creative use of a national data set to overcome the problem of estimating a…