Download or read book Evidence and Evaluation in Social Policy written by Ian Greener and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-12-10 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By examining the role of evidence in social policymaking and the extent of its influence, Evidence and Evaluation in Social Policy delves deeply into one of the central questions of the field for the last 20 years. Chronicles the trend towards evidence-based policy over the last decade Assesses the ways in which scarce resources can best be used for the best care, particularly in times of austerity Describes methodological innovation, the ways in which researchers and politicians are working together effectively, and suggestions for future improvement Covers topics such as the role of randomized controlled trials in shaping public policy; the pitfalls of evidence-based policy as a prescriptive ideal; the challenges of measuring public support for policy interventions; and the benefits of engaging local government decision-makers with evaluation research
Download or read book Handbook of Social Policy Evaluation written by Bent Greve and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2017-03-31 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook uses methodologies and cases to discover how and when to evaluate social policy, and looks at the possible impacts of evaluation on social policy decisions. The contributors present a detailed analysis on how to conduct social policy evaluation, how to be aware of pitfalls and dilemmas and how to use evidence effectively.
Download or read book Impact Evaluation in Practice Second Edition written by Paul J. Gertler and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016-09-12 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.
Download or read book Evidence Based Policy written by Ray Pawson and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2006-04-07 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this important new book, Ray Pawson examines the recent spread of evidence-based policy making across the Western world. Few major public initiatives are mounted these days in the absence of a sustained attempt to evaluate them. Programmes are tried, tried and tried again and researched, researched and researched again. And yet it is often difficult to know which interventions, and which inquiries, will withstand the test of time. The evident solution, going by the name of evidence-based policy, is to take the longer view. Rather than relying on one-off studies, it is wiser to look to the 'weight of evidence'. Accordingly, it is now widely agreed the most useful data to support policy decisions will be culled from systematic reviews of all the existing research in particular policy domains. This is the consensual starting point for Ray Pawson's latest foray into the world of evaluative research. But this is social science after all and harmony prevails only in the first chapter. Thereafter, Pawson presents a devastating critique of the dominant approach to systematic review - namely the 'meta-analytic' approach as sponsored by the Cochrane and Campbell collaborations. In its place is commended an approach that he terms 'realist synthesis'. On this vision, the real purpose of systematic review is better to understand programme theory, so that policies can be properly targeted and developed to counter an ever-changing landscape of social problems. The book will be essential reading for all those who loved (or loathed) the arguments developed in Realistic Evaluation (Sage, 1997). It offers a complete blueprint for research synthesis, supported by detailed illustrations and worked examples from across the policy waterfront. It will be of especial interest to policy-makers, practitioners, researchers and students working in health, education, employment, social care, criminal justice, regeneration and welfare.
Download or read book Program Evaluation for Social Workers written by Richard M. Grinnell and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2016 with total page 553 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Revised editon of Program evaluation for social workers, 2012.
Download or read book What Works written by Nutley, Sandra M. and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2000-07-19 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of how the knowledge gained from research is used to improve the effectiveness of public policy formation and public service delivery. It covers eight areas of public service - health, education, criminal justice, social policy, transport, urban policy, housing and social care.
Download or read book Social Work Research and Evaluation written by Richard M. Grinnell, Jr. and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-26 with total page 1196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over thirty years of input from instructors and students have gone into this popular research methods text, resulting in a refined ninth edition that is easier to read, understand, and apply than ever before. Using unintimidating language and real-world examples, it introduces students to the key concepts of evidence-based practice that they will use throughout their professional careers. It emphasizes both quantitative and qualitative approaches to research, data collection methods, and data analysis, providing students with the tools they need to become evidence-based practitioners.
Download or read book Evaluation for the real world written by Palfrey, Colin and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2012-06-13 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evaluation research findings should be a key element of the policy-making process, yet in reality they are often disregarded. This valuable book examines the development of evaluation and its impact on public policy by analysing evaluation frameworks and criteria which are available when evaluating public policies and services. It further examines the nature of evidence and its use and non-use by decision-makers and assesses the work of influential academics in the USA and UK in the context of evaluation and policy making. The book emphasises the 'real world' of decision-makers in the public sector and recognises how political demands and economic pressures can affect the decisions of those who commission evaluation research while providing recommendations for policymakers on adopting a different approach to evaluation. This is essential reading for under-graduate and post-graduate students of policy analysis and public sector management, and those who are involved in the planning and evaluation of public policies and services.
Download or read book Using Evidence in Policy and Practice written by Ian Goldman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-06-10 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book asks how governments in Africa can use evidence to improve their policies and programmes, and ultimately, to achieve positive change for their citizens. Looking at different evidence sources across a range of contexts, the book brings policy makers and researchers together to uncover what does and doesn’t work and why. Case studies are drawn from five countries and the ECOWAS (west African) region, and a range of sectors from education, wildlife, sanitation, through to government procurement processes. The book is supported by a range of policy briefs and videos intended to be both practical and critically rigorous. It uses evidence sources such as evaluations, research synthesis and citizen engagement to show how these cases succeeded in informing policy and practice. The voices of policy makers are key to the book, ensuring that the examples deployed are useful to practitioners and researchers alike. This innovative book will be perfect for policy makers, practitioners in government and civil society, and researchers and academics with an interest in how evidence can be used to support policy making in Africa. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003007043, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license
Download or read book Prevention Policy and Public Health written by Amy A. Eyler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Resource added for the Health Navigator program 105392.
Download or read book What Counts as Credible Evidence in Applied Research and Evaluation Practice written by Stewart I. Donaldson and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2009 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What Counts as Credible Evidence in Applied Research and Evaluation Practice? is the first book of its kind to define and place into greater perspective the meaning of evidence for evaluation professionals and applied researchers. Editors Stewart I. Donaldson, Christina A. Christie, and Melvin M. Mark provide observations about the diversity and changing nature of credible evidence, include lessons from their own applied research and evaluation practice, and suggest ways in which practitioners might address the key issues and challenges of collecting credible evidence." "This book is appropriate for a wide range of courses, including Introduction to Evaluation Research, Research Methods, Evaluation Practice, Program Evaluation, Program Development and Evaluation, and evaluation courses in Social Work, Education, Public Health, and Public Policy."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book The Politics of Evaluation written by Taylor, David and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2005-01-19 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evaluation has become a central tool in the development of contemporary social policy. Its widespread popularity is based on the need to provide evidence of the effectiveness of policies and programmes. This book sees evaluation as an inherently political activity, as much about forms of governance as scientific practice. Using a wide range of examples from neighbourhood renewal, health and social care and other aspects of social policy, it relates practical issues in evaluation design to their political contexts. With contributions from leading academics and evaluation practitioners, the book considers key issues in the politics of evaluation including: governance and evaluation; participatory evaluation; partnerships and evaluation; and learning from evaluation. The politics of evaluation is important reading for academics, social researchers, policy makers, service providers and professionals across the public services as well as professional evaluators. It will be a valuable resource for students on a range of social science and professional courses and those concerned with recent developments in social research methodology.
Download or read book Informing Federal Policies on Evaluation Methodology Building the Evidence Base for Method Choice in Government Sponsored Evaluations written by George Julnes and published by Jossey-Bass. This book was released on 2007-04-20 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most divisive issues in the evaluation community has been the debate over which methodologies are to be considered adequate or commendable in addressing different evaluation questions in different settings. One form of this debate involved opposing camps of proponents of qualitative versus quantitative methods. A decade ago, there was some hope that the two sides of this debate, referred to as the paradigm war, were learning to respect each other. More recently, however, a federal agency priority for funding random assignment experimental studies has reignited the debate. This volume provides a space for a productive dialogue that, by identifying areas of agreement but also fundamental differences, will promote a more durable working consensus on the circumstances in which some methods are to be preferred over others. The chapter authors and discussants make clear that there are different types of evidence with which to inform this dialogue, including empirical findings of the impact of method choice on evaluation outcomes, the evidence contained in the wisdom of practice, and the results of critical analyses of the broader social impacts of method choice. The editors build on these contributions to suggest pragmatic policies for federal agencies, promoting both context-appropriate method choice and the importance of managing portfolios of evaluative research that maintain desired distributions of methodologies. This is the 113th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Evaluation, a publication of Jossey-Bass and the American Evaluation Association.
Download or read book Evidence Building and Evaluation in Government written by Kathryn Newcomer and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2021-11-24 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text provides a road map for evaluators doing business within or for government, public managers who are expected to assess and use evidence generated by a large variety of evaluation approaches, and students taking evaluation courses in public management.
Download or read book Development Policies and Policy Processes in Africa written by Christian Henning and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-05 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. The book examines the methodological challenges in analyzing the effectiveness of development policies. It presents a selection of tools and methodologies that can help tackle the complexities of which policies work best and why, and how they can be implemented effectively given the political and economic framework conditions of a country. The contributions in this book offer a continuation of the ongoing evidence-based debate on the role of agriculture and participatory policy processes in reducing poverty. They develop and apply quantitative political economy approaches by integrating quantitative models of political decision-making into existing economic modeling tools, allowing a more comprehensive growth-poverty analysis. The book addresses not only scholars who use quantitative policy modeling and evaluation techniques in their empirical or theoretical research, but also technical experts, including policy makers and analysts from stakeholder organizations, involved in formulating and implementing policies to reduce poverty and to increase economic and social well-being in African countries.
Download or read book Mind the Gap written by Jos Vaessen and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 2011-12-31 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past twenty to thirty years, evaluation has become increasingly important to the field of public policy. The number of people involved and specializing in evaluation has also increased markedly. Evidence of this trend can be found in the International Atlas of Evaluation, the establishment of new journals and evaluation societies, and the increase in systems of evaluation. Increasingly, the main reference point has become an assessment of the merit and value of interventions as such rather than the evaluator's disciplinary background. This growing importance of evaluation as an activity has also led to an increasing demand for the type of competencies evaluators should have. Evaluation began as a niche area within the social and behavioral sciences. It subsequently became linked to policy research and analysis, and has, more recently, become trans-disciplinary. This volume demonstrates an association between the evaluation tradition in a particular country or policy field and the nature of the relationship between social and behavioral science research and evaluative practice. This book seeks to offer comprehensive data, which lead to conclusions about patterns that transcend the gap between evaluation and the social scientific disciplines. Mind the Gap has a twofold aim. The first is to highlight and characterize the gap between evaluation practices and debates, and the substantive knowledge debates within the social and behavioral sciences. The second is to show why this gap is problematic for the practice of evaluation, while at the same time illustrating possible ways to build bridges. The book is centered on the value of producing useful evaluations grounded in social science theory and research.
Download or read book Social Experimentation Program Evaluation and Public Policy written by Maureen A. Pirog and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 2008-11-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides a single collection some of the best articles on social experimentation and program evaluation that have appeared in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (JPAM). Provides exposure to a variety of well-executed social experiments and evaluations for evidence-based public policy Examines the theory and conduct of evaluations and social experiments as they relate to their practical implementation in evidence-based policy making Provides exposure to the fundamental issues surrounding the conduct of evaluations as well as to the relative merits of social experiments and the ethics and use of evaluations
