Provides tools for a wide range of human service practitioners to help evaluate how effective their work is. Will appeal to a wide range of... practitioners, whether the clients are individuals, families, corpora tions, or agencies. A practical, hands-on book that provides extensiv e examples and advice that makes sense in a real world context.

Evaluating Practice continues to be the most comprehensive practice evaluation text available.   Focusing on single-system designs, Evaluating... Practice, 6/e presents clear guidelines on conceptualizing and measuring problems, developing practice-oriented evaluation designs, understanding and analyzing data, and ethical guidelines for practice evaluation.    This text is unsurpassed among human service evaluation texts for bringing clarity to evaluation procedures.

This is a practical guide to evaluating professional development programs at five increasing levels of sophistication: participants' reaction to... professional development; how much participants learned; evaluating organizational support and change; how participants use their new knowledge and skills; and improvements in student learning.

This updated edition on evaluating the effectiveness of school programs provides an expanded needs-assessment section, additional methods for data... analysis, and tools for communicating program results.

Effective decisions are crucial to the success of any software project, but to make better decisions you need a better decision-making process. In ... Evaluating Project Decisions , leading project management experts introduce an innovative decision model that helps you tailor your decision-making process to systematically evaluate all of your decisions and avoid the bad choices that lead to project failure.   Using a real-world, case study approach, the authors show how to evaluate software project problems and situations more effectively, thoughtfully assess your alternatives, and improve the decisions you make. Drawing on their own extensive research and experience, the authors bridge software engineering theory and practice, offering guidance that is both well-grounded and actionable. They present dozens of detailed examples from both successful and unsuccessful projects, illustrating what to do and what not to do.   Evaluating Project Decisions will help you to analyze your options and ultimately make better decisions at every stage in your project, including: Requirements–Elicitation, description, verification, validation, negotiation, contracting, and management over the software life cycle Estimates–Conceptual solution design, decomposition, resource and overhead allocation, estimate construction, and change management Planning–Defining objectives, policies, and scope; planning tasks, milestones, schedules, budgets, staff and other resources; and managing projects against plans Product–Proper product definition, development process management, QA, configuration management, delivery, installation, training, and field service Process–Defining, selecting, understanding, teaching, and measuring processes; evaluating process performance; and process improvement or optimization In addition, you will see how to evaluate decisions related to risk, people, stakeholder expectations, and global development. Simply put, you’ll use what you learn here on every project, in any industry, whatever your goals, and for projects of any duration, size, or type.

This text provides readers with the intellectual tools necessary to evaluate psychological information and to separate research from opinion and... reliable evidence from propaganda. Proposing a four-step procedure, the text focuses on helping students evaluate psychological research and evidence from various (and sometimes incomplete or misleading) secondary sources. Step 1 involves identifying the source; Step 2 teaches how to understand the source by analyzing the central idea (Ch. 3); Step 3 teaches how to identify the source; and Step 4 instructs how to evaluate evidence from psychological research (Ch. 4). Each chapter opens with critical thinking questions and includes examples, practice, and feedback¿all essential parts of the learning process.

Evaluating Public and Community Health ProgramsEvaluating Public and Community Health Programs combines an introduction to public and community health... program evaluation with a detailed survey of methods in community assessment, planning, program design, quantitative and qualitative data collection, data analysis, and reporting of findings. The book presents an approach built on the two primary evaluation frameworks that are most common in public and community health: the Donaldson three-step program theory-driven evaluation model and CDC's six-step Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health. The author emphasizes practical, ongoing evaluation strategies that involve all program stakeholders, not just evaluation experts, and presents a simple and effective standards-based four-step model that will produce rich and useful results. The book's resources (scenarios, worksheets, and guidelines) can be used throughout the planning, implementation, and evaluation process. In addition, each chapter includes a list of learning objectives, key terms, and ideas for review, as well as summaries and discussion questions that can reinforce each chapter's lessons.

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.

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.

Evaluating Public Relations advises PR practitioners at all levels how to demonstrate clearly and objectively to their clients and managers the impact... that their work has. The authors draw on both their practical and academic experience to discuss a diverse range of evaluation methods and strategies, illustrating them throughout with award winning case studies and interviews. Fully revised and updated, the second edition of this book allows practitioners to more closely monitor and evaluate their campaigns and helps them develop more robust campaign strategies. This edition includes new information on: online evaluation; measuring relationships; practitioner culture, evaluation procedures and structures; payment by results; econometrics; word of mouth. Covering both theory and practice, Evaluating Public Relations is a handbook for both students and experienced practitioners.

This thoroughly updated new edition of the bestselling text trains students-potential researchers and consumers of research-to critically read a... research article from start to finish. Containing 25 engaging samples of ideal and flawed research, the text helps students assess the soundness of the design and appropriateness of the statistical analyses.

Where is the evidence in a nursing research study? What is the evidence? How good is the evidence? And, how is it relevant to providing evidence-based... nursing care? Ensure that students can meet the AACN s (American Association of Colleges of Nursing) goal of identifying valid research findings and using them to determine if they are providing care that is supported by evidence.