Impact evaluations assess the degree to which changes in outcomes can be attributed to an intervention rather than to other factors. Such attribution requires knowing what outcomes would have looked like in the absence of the intervention. This counterfactual world can be inferred only indirectly through evaluation designs that control for…

Donald W. Compton, the first director of evaluation services at the National Home Office (Atlanta) of the American Cancer Society, tells the story of building the unit in conditions of high demand and a limited budget. Along the way, evaluation was brought to regional divisions and to local offices in part as a response to United Way and to his…

Productive dialogue is informed best by multiple and diverse voices. Five seasoned evaluators, representing a range of evaluation perspectives, offer their views in two- to three-page discussant contributions. These individuals were asked to reflect and comment on the previous chapters in the spirit of critical review as a key source of evidence…

Two broad classes of mixed-method designs--component and integrated--that have the potential to combine elements of different inquiry traditions are described. The conceptual ideas advanced in the first chapter are illustrated through selected examples of several mixed-method integrated models. (Author/SLD)

A pragmatic framework for making decisions about mixed-method designs is proposed and then applied to illustrative evaluation case studies to help identify the strengths and limitations of making practical, contextual, and consequential considerations a primary basis for evaluation design decisions. (Author)

Illustrative case studies support a contingency approach to mixed-method evaluation in which the evaluation team bases its selection of methods on the information to be provided, the availability of data, and the degree to which the program environment is an open or closed system. (SLD)

Case examples in the articles in this volume are analyzed in the mixed-method conceptual frameworks presented in the early chapters. The richer understanding derived from these approaches support the call to advance mixed-method inquiry beyond models and toward inquiry attributes that can be combined. (Author/SLD)

This final chapter summarizes the areas of consensus in the debate on method choice, including considering the nature of the primary evaluation questions, the nature of the phenomenon being evaluated, the constraints on the evaluation, and ethical issues. Pragmatic suggestions based on these areas as well as areas still in contention are offered.…

A review of qualitative methods used in a predominantly quantitative evaluation indicates a variety of roles for such a mixing of methods, including framing and revising research questions, assessing the validity of measures and adaptations to program implementation, and gauging the degree of uncertainty and generalizability of conclusions.…

The seven chapters of this volume review current design and use of performance measurement in public and nonprofit programs. The contexts surrounding design and implementation of performance measurement systems and best practices are discussed, and examples of the use of performance measurement in government and the nonprofit sector are presented.…

Program theory-driven evaluation science uses substantive knowledge, as opposed to method proclivities, to guide program evaluations. It aspires to update, clarify, simplify, and make more accessible the evolving theory of evaluation practice commonly referred to as theory-driven or theory-based evaluation. The evaluator in this chapter provides a…

The seven articles of this special issue focus on theory and research related to survey methods and whether evaluators need information that is absent from the larger survey literature. These articles reflect the view that the considerations relating to good survey research apply also to using surveys in evaluation. (SLD)

The author describes potential evaluation capacity-building activities in contrast to the specifics of an evaluation design. Her response to the case of the Bunche-Da Vinci Learning Partnership Academy is developed in three parts: (1) an initial framing of the Bunche-Da Vinci situation; (2) what should be done before signing a contract; and (3)…

In 2001, the Bunche Academy was chosen by its district to join in partnership with the Da Vinci Learning Corporation to embark on an ambitious whole-school reform initiative, especially designed by the corporation for low-performing schools. In this chapter, the author describes how, as illustrated in the Bunche-Da Vinci Learning Academy context,…