Collaborative Evaluation systematically invites and engages stakeholders in program evaluation planning and implementation. Unlike "distanced" evaluation approaches, which reject stakeholder participation as evaluation team members, Collaborative Evaluation assumes that active, on-going engagement between evaluators and program staff,…

The Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) national evaluation seeks to assess both the implementation process and the results of the SS/HS initiative, exploring factors that have contributed to or detracted from grantee success. Each site is required to forge partnerships with representatives from education, mental health, juvenile justice, and…

Blending high-quality and rigorous research with pure evaluation practice can often be best accomplished through thoughtful collaboration. The evaluation of a high school drug prevention program (All Stars Senior) is an example of how perceived competing purposes and methodologies can coexist to investigate formative and summative outcome…

There exist an increasing number of studies that demonstrate the necessity to evaluate the processes which characterize a program and guarantee its implementation and evaluation. This paper deals with the implementation of a program designed to improve the acculturation of immigrant families in Spain (EU). Implementation followed a process that…

In 2006, De Beers Consolidated Diamond Mines in South Africa entered into a partnership, with the Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communications to implement an HIV and AIDS Community Training Partnership Program (CTPP), initially in five diamond mining areas in three provinces of South Africa. The aim of CTPP was to improve HIV…

Although staff training in public child welfare agencies is thought to be a critical component of effective practice, little is known about the delivery and effectiveness of training interventions. Few evaluations are published in the literature and it is uncertain how much evaluation activity is being conducted and utilized. This study collected…

Evaluation reports increasingly document the degree of program implementation, particularly the extent to which programs adhere to prescribed steps and procedures. Many reports are cursory, however, and few, if any, fully portray the long and winding path taken when developing evaluation instruments, particularly observation instruments. In this…

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the implementation process for Parenting Plus, an early intervention program in a rural, western Canadian health district. Parenting Plus, as modeled after Hawaii Healthy Start, provides strength-based paraprofessional home visitations to overburdened parents of newborns. The general inductive…

There is increasing recognition of the need for evaluations that identify program processes or mediators and assess degree of program implementation rather than focusing solely on outcome evaluation. This paper describes the application of complementary qualitative and quantitative evaluation procedures to assess the degree of implementation of…

Developed a comprehensive methodology for a series of process evaluations of seven therapeutic communities for drug-involved offenders. The methodology used stakeholder interviews, official measures of program implementation, and a new structured observation technique. Discusses the type and quality of information provided by each technique. (SLD)

Summarizes ongoing economic impact assessment activities at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for its Measurement and Standards Laboratory Program. Explores designing economic impact studies for integration into assessments of broader programmatic objectives. (SLD)

The three articles of this special section illustrate the complexity of HIV risk behaviors and demonstrate the need to go beyond simply assessing drug use and sexual behavior. They support a more comprehensive view of risk that challenges intervention design and current methodology. (SLD)

Four key entities participating in foreign assistance projects are (1) donors; (2) technical advisors; (3) host country counterparts; and (4) beneficiaries. Resistance to collaborative evaluation that each may exhibit is discussed, along with ways evaluators can overcome resistance and enhance evaluation outcomes, credibility, and utilization.…

The Research and Evaluation Support Services Unit of the New South Wales (Australia) Department of Education conducts program evaluations to provide information to senior management for decision making. The 10-step system used is described, which provides for planning, evaluation, and staff development. (TJH)

Contrasts different methods of evaluating aid programs to small and medium enterprises. Methods focus on the relationship between beneficiaries and program implementers to explore the role intangible relational means play in specific cultural contexts. (SLD)