Download or read book Public Policy Evaluation Meta evaluation and Essentialism written by Raymond Apthorpe and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research paper looking at some theoretical aspects of evaluation of development policies aimed at rural cooperatives in developing countries - includes a bibliography pp. 43 to 45.

Download or read book Public Policy Evaluation Meta evolution and Essentialism written by Raymond J. Apthorpe and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Using Theory to Improve Program and Policy Evaluations written by Huey-tsyh Chen and published by Praeger. This book was released on 1992-05-20 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays edited by Huey-tsyh Chen and Peter H. Rossi underscores the importance of theory in program evaluation and analyzes the nature and implications of theory-driven evaluations. Scholars from different disciplines cover a wide range of issues, such as functions of program theory, the interface between theory and methods, strategies for formulating theory, cost and resource constraints, different types of theory-driven evaluations, and the future implications of such evaluations. This broad-based analysis is designed for interdisciplinary audiences in all the social sciences, including political scientists, sociologists, and public administrators. This policy study analysis points to four types of theory that guide evaluations and describe theory-driven metaevaluation. Five approaches are used to analyze research strategies and methods. Three applications offer insights into programs and policies and their implementation--multigoal theory-driven approaches, programs for the homeless, and children's mental health services. Five chapters examine applications in impact assessment and cost-benefit analysis--the importance of theory in selection modeling, the impact of plant closings, research-based theory for educational planning and evaluation, using meta-analysis in evaluation, and theory-driven approaches to cost-benefit analysis.

Download or read book Public Policy and Program Evaluation written by Evert Vedung and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evaluation is a controversial and little-understood strategy of public governance, control, and decision making. As early as classical antiquity, scholars were summoned to court to counsel kings. Public policy and program evaluation is a recent addition to the great chain of attempts to use the brainpower of scholars and scientists to further the interests of the state. Evaluation scholars are asked to provide retrospective assessments of the implementation, output, and outcome of government measures in order to effect deeper understanding and well-grounded decisions on the part of those in charge of government operations. Evaluation is the process of distinguishing the worthwhile from the worthless, the precious from the useless; evaluation implies looking backward in order to be able to steer forward better. Written from a political science perspective, Public Policy and Program Evaluation provides an overview of the possibilities and limits of public sector evaluation. Evert Vedung examines evaluation as a mechanism for monitoring, systematizing, and grading government activities and their results so that public officials, in their future-oriented work, will be able to act as responsibly, creatively, and efficiently as possible. Topics discussed include: "Evaluation, Rationality, and Theories of Public Management"; "Models of Evaluation"; "Internal or External Evaluation"; "Impact Assessment as Tryout and Social Experimentation"; "Process Evaluation and Implementation Theory"; "The Eight-Problems Approach to Evaluation"; and "Uses and Users of Evaluation." All evaluation rests upon the idea that perceptions, opinions, intentions, judgments—in short, everything concerned with the world of human consciousness—play such interesting roles in political and administrative action that their functions are worth investigating. Through experience, humans may learn from past actions. The interventions of the modern state are so extensive, their execu

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 Advancing Public Policy Evaluation written by John Mayne and published by North Holland. This book was released on 1992 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Several research topics are discussed in this volume, beginning with research related to the organization and management of program evaluation within government departments, or across government departments in a national or sub-national jurisdiction. Following this there are papers on research related to the planning of evaluation schedules and/or the planning of individual evaluations; research related to the conduct (management methods and reporting) of program evaluation studies within and across national jurisdictions; and research related to enhancing the utilization of evaluation findings. The volume focuses on how these aspects of the evaluation process relate, and are useful to the various clients for evaluation. These clients include those within the evaluating organization (program managers, heads of organizations); political clients (legislative bodies, politicians); clients in central control organizations (budget offices, audit offices); and the public.

Download or read book Policy Evaluation written by Ray C. Rist and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 1995 with total page 634 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For governments to be successful in achieving their objectives, they need to select the correct policy instruments. This volume addresses the role of policy instruments in achieving policy objectives. Policy Evaluation provides a systematic assessment of the impact that public policy evaluations have on the governance of democratic societies. This book emphasises the impacts of policy evaluations on the formulation, implementation and accountability functions of governments. At all three phases of the policy cycle, there is a need for coherent and systematic evaluation. This book demonstrates how such evaluations can be conducted and the opportunities for their subsequent utilization.

Download or read book Arguing Development Policy written by Raymond Apthorpe and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-23 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection shows how policy discourses in the fields of national and international developments are constructed and operate and how they can be analysed. Dominant discourses screen out certain aspects: they frame' issues to include some matters and typically exclude important others. More generally, different policy discourses construct the world in distinctive ways, through language that requires deconstruction and careful review.

Download or read book Public Policy Evaluation written by Kenneth M. Dolbeare and published by SAGE Publications, Incorporated. This book was released on 1975-11 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Evaluation written by Peter H. Rossi and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2003-10-14 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since Peter H. Rossi, Mark W. Lipsey, and Howard E. Freeman first published Evaluation: A Systematic Approach, more than 90,000 readers have considered it the premier text on how to design, implement, and appraise social programs through evaluation. In this, the completely revised Seventh Edition, authors Rossi and Lipsey include the latest techniques and approaches to evaluation as well as guidelines to tailor evaluations to fit programs and social contexts. With decades of hands-on experience conducting evaluations, the authors provide scores of examples to help students understand how evaluators deal with various critical issues. They include a glossary of key terms and concepts, making this the most comprehensive and authoritative evaluation text available. Thoroughly revised, the Seventh Edition now includes * Substantially more attention to outcome measurement * Lengthy discussions of program theory, including a section about detecting program effects and interpreting their practical significance * An augmented and updated discussion of major evaluation designs * A detailed exposition of meta-analysis as an approach to the synthesis of evaluation studies * Alternative approaches to evaluation * Examples of successful evaluations * Discussions of the political and social contexts of evaluation

Download or read book Meta Analysis for Public Management and Policy written by Evan Ringquist and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-01-03 with total page 590 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for Meta-Analysis for Public Management and Policy "In his usual rigorous but readable style, Evan Ringquist and co-author Mary Anderson have produced a tour-de-force on the topic of meta-analysis in public policy and management research. Meta-analysis is badly needed in the all-too-common situation when researchers have low confidence in summarizing the overall results of dozens of studies on the effectiveness of some policy. This book has a nice combination of conceptual overview, methodological details, and applications that will make it possible for researchers to conduct their own meta-analysis. It is tempting to require all graduate students to write a meta-analysis as a chapter in their dissertation, or include meta-analysis as a standard offering in the research methods curriculum of social science graduate programs. The more people that adopt Ringquist and Anderson's approach, the less resources will be wasted on conducting studies that do not contribute to cumulative scientific knowledge. " —Mark Lubell Department of Environmental Science and Policy Director, Center for Environmental Policy and Behavior University of California-Davis “Ringquist and his colleagues deliver value and add to canon of public management methods by delivering an analytical framework that makes the case for systematic research using the tools of meta-analysis. This book will be a must read for all committed to strengthening evidence-based research that improves public policy and management decision making.” —David M. Van Slyke The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Syracuse University “In Meta-Analysis for Public Management and Policy Evan Ringquist and his colleagues provide a lucid and practical roadmap for policy and public management scholars who use meta-analysis in their research. But this is more than a “how to” volume; it provides background on why meta-analysis is a potent means for accumulating and synthesizing empirical research findings, and shows how its use has evolved in recent decades. Specific applications of meta-analysis to long-standing policy and management debates are given, essentially providing an array of developed “templates” through which scholars and practitioners can assess how to approach different kinds of analytical problems using meta-analysis. Particularly valuable to me is the careful development and presentation of the necessary stages of meta-analysis, from conceptualization through data coding and bias assessment to advanced modeling. All of the statistical analyses can be conducted in Stata, utilizing readily available “.ado” modules. I will use this book, both in research and in the classroom. Overall it is one of the most useful methodological contributions I’ve seen in some time.” —Hank Jenkins-Smith Department of Political Science Director, Center for Applied Social Research University of Oklahoma “Meta-Analysis for Public Management and Policy conveys the considerable untapped potential of meta-analysis to strengthen and advance bodies of knowledge and evidence in public management and policy. This book takes students and researchers deep into the methods of meta-analysis and details of their empirical application, without losing sight of the important policy questions and the implications of choices that researchers make in their empirical work for the production of evidence for public managers and policymakers. This book will serve as an excellent practical guide for those conducting their first meta-analysis, while at the same time supporting critically-focused consumption of existing meta-analyses and discussion of where the field can gainfully take this approach to enhance our research and knowledge bases. It draws in a range of valuable and important examples of applications of meta-analysis techniques throughout the book and rounds off with four full-fledged applications of the method. Although the book reaches out to an audience of public management and policy researchers and consumers of this research, it should be of interest to a broad range of applied social science researchers and students as well.” —Carolyn Heinrich Sid Richardson Professor of Public Affairs Director, Center for Health and Social Policy LBJ School of Public Affairs University of Texas – Austin “Even for incredibly specialized techniques, public management and policy scholars have a multiplicity of methods texts from which to choose. Yet it is truly surprising that a strong guide to applied meta-analysis — a rigorous framework for the organization of empirical findings — has not been available. Ringquist and Anderson provided just that with an accessible guide to sophisticated techniques. Marrying an instructive text to a set of exemplary standalone studies, Meta-Analysis for Public Management and Policy offers unparalleled guidance for instructors and students and more than a little wisdom for seasoned scholars. It is destined to become the standard reference for our field.” —Anthony Michael Bertelli CC Crawford Chair in Management and Performance USC Price School of Public Policy USC Gould School of Law University of Southern California “This comprehensive treatment of meta-analysis is an excellent guide for scholars and students in public management and public policy. The carefully done exposition demonstrates why meta-analysis should have greater use in the profession.” —Kenneth J. Meier Charles H. Gregory Chair in Liberal Arts Department of Political Science Texas A&M University “This remarkable book reviews the history of the use of meta-analysis in the social sciences, argues forcefully for its importance, value, and relevance for public managers, and provides one-stop-shopping for those who want to learn how to do it or understand how others have done it. The detailed coverage of each step in the process allows a student to learn the technique completely while fully understanding the logic and intellectual goals of the enterprise. Most importantly, the authors review techniques from a range of disciplines, drawing most of their positive suggestions from the field of medical statistics rather than the social sciences. The examples and applications, on the other hand, stem from the world of government and public policy. Four chapters provide new syntheses of research on individual policies using the techniques and practices introduced in the earlier chapters. The result is original research, a strong argument for the value of meta-analysis in a field (political science and public administration) that uses it little, and a complete tool-kit for those who would want to apply these powerful ideas on their own. A very impressive and useful text.” —Frank R. Baumgartner Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professor Department of Political Science University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill “Meta-analysis is a valuable tool for accumulating knowledge about how management matters from across a range of policy areas and disciplines. It is also an underused tool, in large part because of the lack of a comprehensive and useable guide on the topic. Ringquist remedies this problem by offering clear instruction on how to apply the technique wisely, as well as highly useful empirical demonstrations. The field of public management needs this excellent book.” —Donald Moynihan Professor of Public Affairs University of Wisconsin-Madison “Professors and students frequently face decisions about how deeply to invest in a statistical procedure, a new technology, a new theory, or some other development in their discipline. The authors of Meta-Analysis for Public Management and Policy support such a decision about meta-analysis by making a convincing case for its value and increasing utilization, including such steps as a careful consideration of criticisms of the method. Evan Ringquist then provides clearly, engagingly written chapters on the major concepts, procedures, and issues in the techniques of meta-analysis. His coauthors then provide effectively-presented examples of meta-analytic studies about such topics as school voucher effectiveness, public service motivation and performance, and public sector performance management. The accessible and reader-friendly explanations, coupled with the illustrative examples that walk the reader through how to do it, make this a distinctively effective methodological text. In so doing, it offers a distinctively valuable resource for those of us who want to learn more about this important statistical method.” —Hal Rainey Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor Department of Public Administration and Policy University of Georgia “James Heckman’s Nobel lecture described the combined influence of micro surveys, advances in computers and software, and the development and dissemination of multivariate statistical methods on applied economic research. His comments apply equally well to empirical research throughout the social sciences. These forces have created a “flood of numbers” and advances in technology since he wrote about them have assured that the process is accelerating. We need to transform the ways we learn from empirical analyses and create a science for the analysis of the secondary data from applied statistical and econometric models. This science would include methods for summarizing what has been learned from estimates and tests. It would provide methods for diagnostic screening of results to gauge the importance of modeling assumptions and the types of primary data for the findings being reported. Finally, it may well lead to the development of meta-models—integrating findings intended to describe a single system but viewed thru distinctive empirical lenses. Meta-analysis is a method that takes an important step in developing this science. It is a collection of methods that is a product of the transformation in applied research in the past half century. Initially much of this research was the domain of social scientists working on the evaluation of educational interventions. In these applications the primary data from different studies were routinely available, but the outcome and control variables differed across studies. As a result, the focus for these meta-analyses was on data combination with multiple, distinctive measures for asset of latent variables associated with the hypothesized underlying process. The texts describing meta-analysis focused on these situations. As applications of meta-analysis expanded to economics, political science, and sociology, the data structures changed. The new data came from empirical models –as estimated parameters or summaries of test results. The challenges posed in developing these types of data and understanding what they reveal were distinctly different. A text developed by scholars who appreciate how these types of summaries are different was missing until Ringquist and Anderson’s Meta Analysis for Public Management and Policy. Explaining a process that blends the best of qualitative and quantitative research is a challenge. This book has met this challenge and delivered researchers a great platform for teaching these methods to their students and for updating their own skills. At least four features distinguish this book: 1. The authors display a clear understanding of the strengths and the weaknesses of meta- analysis. Their treatment describes how care in data construction, variable coding, relevant statistical methods and, especially, careful attention to interpreting the findings from a meta-analysis can reinforce the strengths and mitigate the weaknesses. 2. There are real examples presented throughout the book along with a genuine understanding of the importance of the details in developing meta-analyses. 3. The coverage of relevant statistical methods is comprehensive and clear. And 4. The Appendices offer the detail researchers need to see in order to genuinely learn how to use meta analytic methods. It should be in the library of every serious teacher or practitioner”—V. Kerry Smith Regents Professor and W.P. Carey Professor Department of Economics Arizona State University “There are several texts for meta-analysis available, most notably “The Handbook of Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis” by Cooper, Hedges and Valentine, but none specifically directed to public administration and policy scholars. In fact the points of emphasis and examples make the existing texts both difficult and poorly suited for the applied social sciences. Ringquist’s book is a spectacular success in filling this lacuna. Ringquist provides a clearer encapsulation of “the basics” in its opening section, and the “basics” are tailored to “problem-oriented” policy sciences (noting for instance, that meta-analyses in public management and policy will almost always use random-effects over fixed-effects). The empirical examples woven throughout as well as the actual analyses on PSM and school vouchers are exceptionally useful in identifying the stages of the process. At the same time, the book doesn’t spare the gritty details of confronting commonly required procedures, like bootstrapping and dealing with clustered robust SE, hierarchical modeling, etc. For readers with no exposure to meta-analysis, the text eases the transition by offering a refresher on how statistical techniques are used in original research, then how they differ when used in meta-analysis. Ringquist offers guidelines for syntheses, formulating problems, data evaluation, turning studies into data, techniques in meta-analysis, “the language of meta-analysis”, coding strategies and publication bias. The author also notes that the context and even techniques of meta-analysis are different for public management and public policy compared with medicine and psychology, and education. Public administration and policy analysis provide great opportunities for meta-analysis, but these fields also present considerable challenge. Great care is needed in synthesizing differently designed studies, which are observational and quasi-experimental or correlational designs, because the statistics of meta-analysis were originally developed to synthesize results from experiment design. Measurement issues are tricky because authentic scales are used less frequently than in psychology or medical research. In addition PA and policy as fields of scholarship are diverse and eclectic in research design which makes comparison of parameter estimates exceedingly difficult. Ringquist adroitly compiles an approach to meta-analysis adapted to reflect this context. While Section 1 consists of seven chapters, which discusses techniques of meta-analysis, Section 2 including Chapters 8, 9, 10 and 11 illustrates actual studies using meta-analysis conducted in public management and policy research: evaluating the effectiveness of educational vouchers, performance management in public sector, the effects of federal poverty deconcentration efforts on economic self-sufficiency and problematic behaviors, and the relationship between public service motivation and performance. The book is an easier read than other texts in it guides from project inception through lit review and analysis in a manner tailored to policy and management, and it actually provides a much more accessible and thorough coverage of many of the basic building blocks, random effects, r-based effect sizes, and bootstrapping, making it far more indispensable for any PA meta-analysis. The check-lists for coding articles are especially useful. Provision of Stata commands and practical data management suggestions (creating a command file for data set transformations, for instance) is a great advantage for this text. Adding an addendum with R programming options, in the next edition might be helpful too. The conclusion both compelling and concise but I would like to have seen some of the arguments presented here at the beginning of the book, reserving the conclusion for a fuller encapsulation of what the overall strategy of the book accomplishes in stages – rebutting criticisms that meta-analysis in social science is a waste of time because study estimates are non-comparable and effect sizes non-independent with careful examination of research design and models. This book is essential reading for any scholar in public administration and policy considering undertaking meta-analysis. I expect it will gain many readers in other social science disciplines as well. For serious users of meta-analysis Ringquist’s book will not be the only one on the shelf, but it is a valuable addition.” —Richard Feiock Augustus B. Turnbull Professor Askew School of Public Administration and Policy Florida State University

Download or read book Public Policy Evaluation written by Stuart S. Nagel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-08-13 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1998, this volume examines how super-optimum decisions involve finding alternatives to controversies whereby Conservatives, Liberals, or other major groups can all come out ahead of their best initial expectations simultaneously. This book is organised in terms of concepts, methods, causes, process, substance, and the policy studies profession. Concepts clarify that policy evaluation traditionally involves: (1) Goals to be achieved; (2) Alternatives available for achieving them; (3) Relations between goals and alternatives; (4) Drawing a conclusion as to the best alternative in light of the goals, alternatives, and relations; and (5) Analysing how the conclusion would change if there were changes in the goals, alternatives, or relations. Super-optimizing also involves five related steps, but with the following improvements: (1) Goals are designed as conservative, liberal, or neutral; (2) Alternatives get the same designations; (3) Relations are simplified to indicate which alternatives are relatively high or low on each goal; (4) The conclusion involves arriving at an alternative that does better on Goal A than Alternative A, and simultaneously better on Goal B than Alternative B; and (5) The fifth step involves analysing the super-optimum or win-win alternative in terms of its feasibility as to the economic, technological, psychological, political, administrative, and legal matters.

Download or read book Evaluation for Health Policy and Health Care written by Steven Sheingold and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2019-08-21 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the contemporary, applied text on evaluation that your students need. Evaluation for Health Policy and Health Care: A Contemporary Data-Driven Approach explores the best practices and applications for producing, synthesizing, visualizing, using, and disseminating health care evaluation research and reports. This graduate-level text will appeal to those interested in cutting-edge health program and health policy evaluation in this era of health care innovation. Editors Steven Sheingold and Anupa Bir’s core text focuses on quantitative, qualitative, and meta-analytic approaches to analysis, providing a guide for both those executing evaluations and those using the data to make policy decisions. It is designed to provide real-world applications within health policy to make learning more accessible and relevant, and to highlight the remaining challenges for using evidence to develop policy.

Download or read book Handbook of Public Policy Evaluation written by Stuart S. Nagel and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2002 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook deals with many aspects of public policy evaluation: including methods; examples; professionalism studies; perspectives; concepts; substance; theory applications; dispute resolution; interdisciplinary interaction.

Download or read book Evaluating Public Policy written by Frank Fischer and published by Wadsworth Publishing Company. This book was released on 1995 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Millions of dollars are spent each year on the evaluation of domestic and foreign policies. Policy analysis has emerged as an important component of the policy-making process in American government. This text differs from others--not only does it teach students how to evaluate the empirical aspects of a public policy--but also provides an analytical framework for assessing the value judgements that infuse policy decisions. Students learn to assess whether a program reflects the kinds of things that society ought to be doing.

Download or read book The Politics of Program Evaluation written by Dennis J. Palumbo and published by SAGE Publications, Incorporated. This book was released on 1987 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evaluation and politics are related in a number of ways. While programme evaluators have traditionally tried to be neutral, objective and scientific in their assessment of programmes, the results of evaluation are inherently political -- and are used by politicians, programme administrators, special interest groups and other stakeholders for political purposes. The contributors argue that since evaluation cannot be divorced from its political context, the political dimension must be understood in order to conduct effective evaluations.

Download or read book Open to the Public written by Jonathan D. Breul and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Open to the Public grows out of concern with evaluation in the public arena and the struggle to understand how best to use the information it generates. Many concepts and models of evaluation, how to undertake it, and how to make it more useful, were developed before government performance became of so much interest to the public. In fact, it is arguable that recent changes in the forms, shapes, structures, and media through which the information developed in the process of evaluation becomes public, require new ways of thinking about its role in society. What is the role of evaluative information in the public arena today? How, when, and under what circumstances does the actual use of evaluative information take place, and what are the forces at play? By compiling and comparing international case studies, this book considers forces that make the information produced in evaluations increasing ""open to the public."" They provide insights into the many factors that influence evaluation and its use in the public arena. Their case studies include such current topics as: ""spin doctoring"" of information by the media and this practice's relationship to evaluation studies, the hotly debated issue of school performance, and information about it aired in the public arena, and the controversial link between budget processing and government performance. This book will be invaluable to those conducting evaluations, public employees and commissioners, and those studying public administration.