Human ratings are ubiquitous in creativity research. Yet, the process of rating responses to creativity tasks -- typically several hundred or thousands of responses, per rater -- is often time-consuming and expensive. Planned missing data designs, where raters only rate a subset of the total number of responses, have been recently proposed as one…

Clinical research plays a vital role in producing knowledge valuable for understanding human disease and improving healthcare quality. Human subject protection is an obligation essential to the clinical research endeavor, much of which is governed by federal regulations and rules. Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are responsible for overseeing…

This article is concerned with the underpinnings of practical participatory evaluation (PPE). Evaluation approaches have long been criticized because their results are often not used. It is believed that PPE addresses this drawback. The article focuses on the mechanisms underlying the links between activities and consequences in PPE. A PPE theory…

Considered fundamentally a scientific enterprise, evaluation research also requires artistic skills. The latter are essential to in-house evaluators, more so than to extrainstitutional evaluators. A training model is suggested. (Author/GK)

Evaluators usually have preconceptions about how decisions are made in social programs and how evaluation results will be used. This article demonstrates how an evaluator's choice of a decision-making model has significant impact on the conduct and fate of the research. (Author/CM)

In reacting to five recent books on program evaluation, eight evaluation perils are discussed: poor preparation of evaluations, programs with unrealistic goals, the mix-up of models, interpersonal conflicts, the morass of measurement, answering evaluation questions, the secondary evaluator as sniper, and hostility from program staff. (CM)

A participatory model in evaluation is presented as an extension of the stakeholder-based model focusing on the increased participation of primary users. Twenty-six empirical studies that support an organizational learning justification of the model are reviewed and classified. Requirements for participatory evaluation are discussed. (SLD)

The validity of vignettes used to elicit subject responses in social science research is examined in a study of the validity of a group of patient assault vignettes seen by 12 persons with experience in patient care. A model for establishing the validity of vignettes is proposed. (SLD)

This book contains a series of papers presented at an Israel-American seminar on Educational Evaluation. Sol Kugelmass describes strategies employed to increase the utilization of evaluation results in the process of formulating educational policy. Nachum Blass illustrates the relationship between evaluation and policymaking by discussing an…

This speech concerns the dimensions of context-oriented evaluation and begins with a discussion of the differences between measurement, research, statistical methodology, and evaluation. Decision-oriented evaluation is described as a process in which the evaluator has, as a major concern, the responsibility to determine likely decisions prior to…

In this new edition, the author explains quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods, and incorporates the viewpoints of various research paradigms (postpositivist, constructivist, transformative, and pragmatic) into descriptions of these methods. Special emphasis is provided for conducting research in culturally complex communities. Each chapter…

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…

This paper provides an understanding of the conceptual and operational relationships between evaluation, content analysis, and microcomputers so that evaluation practitioners can better address applied content analysis problems used in their work. The first section presents a general model for conducting an evaluation effort that focuses on…

The first half of this monograph provides an overview of the theoretical concerns of evaluators. Definitions are provided of accountability, measurement, assessment, evaluation research, formative and summative evaluation, goal-free evaluation, goal-based evaluation, and evaluation. Several models of evaluation are described and discussed,…