The 4-H youth development organization is a complex public--private partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the nation's Cooperative Extension system and National 4-H Council, a private, nonprofit partner. The current article is focused on a partnership approach to the…

This article presents a content analysis of the 2013 School Leadership Program (SLP) grants. SLP projects provide a unique opportunity for participants in the field to explore innovative leadership preparation and development and their impact on program participants, schools, school districts, and students. The article begins with an overview of…

The continuously growing demand for program results has produced an increased need for evaluation capacity building (ECB). The "Integrative ECB Model" was developed to integrate concepts from existing ECB theory literature and to structure a synthesis of the empirical ECB literature. The study used a broad-based research synthesis method with…

This study addresses the central question "How do evaluators' background characteristics relate to their evaluation design choices?" Evaluators were provided with a fictitious description of a school-based program and asked to design an evaluation of that program. Relevant background characteristics such as level of experience,…

Background: A music education program with a goal of enhancing cognitive development of preschool-aged children enrolled in local preschools is evaluated by The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University. The budget for the evaluation was small, and therefore presented several challenges to the evaluation team. Purpose: Through a case study…

A simulation study was conducted in an attempt to examine how evaluators modify their evaluation design in response to differing stakeholder groups. In this study, evaluators were provided with a fictitious description of a school-based program. They were then asked to design an evaluation of the program. After the evaluation design decisions were…

This paper presents a retrospective explanation as to how evaluation culture has been slowly incorporated into politics and public institutions in Spain during the last three decades. Evaluation, quality, and excellence are relevant concepts embedded in the design of current political programs. At this moment in history, it is important to ask,…

How do evaluation practitioners make choices when they evaluate a program? What function do evaluation theories play in practice? In this article, I report on an exploratory study that examined evaluation practices in France. The research began with observations of practitioners' activities, with a particular focus on the phases of evaluation…

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…

The purpose of this Guide is to advise researchers, policymakers, and others on when it is possible to conduct a high-quality randomized controlled trial in education at reduced cost. Well-designed randomized controlled trials are recognized as the gold standard for evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention (i.e., program or practice) in…

The Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) welfare-to-work program in California was evaluated by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC). The evaluation relied on involvement of stakeholders, examination of program implementation, flexibility, the adaptation of evaluation questions and designs during the study, use of random…

Third stream evaluation, the fusing of the ecological perspective with experimental or quasi-experimental evaluation design, is described. The ecological perspective necessitates that the conceptualization and analysis of a setting and the design of the study emphasize the interdependent relations among organisms, behavior and environment in…

Explores the role of theory in strengthening causal interpretations in nonexperimental research. Evaluators must conduct theory-driven research, concentrating on "small theory," in that the focus is on the explanation of processes specific to the program being evaluated. Theory-guided treatment research must be programmatic and…

Propositions about what works in program evaluation are presented: (1) evaluators should be involved from the beginning; (2) evaluation should be based on explicit programmatic theory; (3) quasi-experimental designs must have high internal validity; and (4) evaluators must combat the deterioration of experimental control that occurs in…