Forensic mental health assessment (FMHA) has grown into a specialization informed by research and professional guidelines. This series presents... up-to-date information on the most important and frequently conducted forms of FMHA. The 19 topical volumes address best approaches to practice for particular types of evaluation in the criminal, civil, and juvenile/family areas. Each volume contains a thorough discussion of the relevant legal and psychological concepts, followed by a step-by-step description of the assessment process from preparing for the evaluation to writing the report and testifying in court.Volumes include the following helpful features: - Boxes that zero in on important information for use in evaluations - Tips for best practice and cautions against common pitfalls - Highlighting of relevant case law and statutes - Separate list of assessment tools for easy reference - Helpful glossary of key terms for the particular topic In making recommendations for best practice, authors consider empirical support, legal relevance, and consistency with ethical and professional standards. These volumes offer invaluable guidance for anyone involved in conducting or using forensic evaluations.The present book focuses on evaluations for civil commitment of sexually violent predators (SVPs). Although this book focuses on evaluating SVP cases, the considerations discussed in this book, such as determining a sex offender's risk to reoffend, apply to evaluations of sex offenders in other contexts (e.g., community notification, sentence enhancement, and probationary management) as well.

Very few books on the superintendency, if any, address the position in the manner of The School Superintendent: The Profession and the Person. This book... covers how to become a superintendent and be successful at it and presents a personal view of the superintendency. It also details: the history of the superintendency, the relationship between the superitendent and the school board, the different types of leadership styles. Authors Sharp and Walter, both former superintendents, offer practical advice, discussion questions, and examples throughout this book. There is also a chapter written by spouses of superintendents in his/her point of view. Intended for use in graduate education classes on the superintendency as well as practicing and aspiring superintendents.

Tough Test Questions? Missed Lectures? Not Enough Time? Fortunately for you, there's Schaum's Outlines. More than 40 million students have... trusted Schaum's to help them succeed in the classroom and on exams. Schaum's is the key to faster learning and higher grades in every subject. Each Outline presents all the essential course information in an easy-to-follow, topic-by-topic format. You also get hundreds of examples, solved problems, and practice exercises to test your skills. This Schaum's Outline gives you: Practice problems with full explanations that reinforce knowledge Coverage of the most up-to-date developments in your course field In-depth review of practices and applications Fully compatible with your classroom text, Schaum's highlights all the important facts you need to know. Use Schaum's to shorten your study time-and get your best test scores! Schaum's Outlines-Problem Solved.

This text presents both the quantitative and qualitative methods and focuses on teaching students how to skillfully apply the full range of research... designs, methods and strategies to evaluation of social work in all domains of social work practice. The book provides a framework for the integration of systematic inquiry with practice that can be used by all social workers. The authors have created a model called, "evaluation practice" that provides the evidence-based structure within which diverse social work theories and skills can be organized, examined and verified.

Evaluation Roots: A Wider Perspective of Theorists’ Views and Influences, Second Edition provides an updated examination of current evaluation... theories and traces their evolution. Marvin C. Alkin shows how theories build upon theories and how the theories are related to each other. The way in which these evaluation "roots" grew to form a tree helps to provide a better understanding of evaluation theory. In addition to the editor's overview, the book contains essays by leading evaluation theorists. In these pieces, the evaluators comment on their own development and give their views of their placement upon the tree.

Evaluation Roots: Tracing Theorists’ Views and Influences examines current evaluation theories and traces their evolution within the framework of... theories, building upon theories and how evaluation theories are related to each other. Initially, all evaluation was derived from social science research methodology and accountability concerns. The way in which these evaluation roots grew to form a tree helps to provide a better understanding of evaluation theory. Thus, the book uses an evaluation theory tree as its central metaphor. Editor Marvin C. Alkin posits that evaluation theories can be classified by the extent to which they focus on methods, uses, or valuing; these three approaches form the major limbs of the tree. 

Evaluation Theory, Models, and Applications is designed for evaluators and students who need to develop a commanding knowledge of the evaluation field:... its history, theory and standards, models and approaches, procedures, and inclusion of personnel as well as program evaluation. This important book shows how to choose from a growing array of program evaluation approaches.In one comprehensive resource, the authors have compiled vital information from the evaluation literature and draw on a wide range of practical experiences. Using this book, evaluators will be able to identify, analyze, and judge 26 evaluation approaches. The authors also show how to discriminate between legitimate and illicit approaches based on application of the Joint Committee Program Evaluation Standards.

Written by one of the leaders in evaluation, Evaluation Thesaurus, Fourth Edition, provides readers with a quick analysis of the leading concepts,... positions, acronyms, processes, techniques, and checklists in the field of evaluation. Containing nearly 2000 entries, Michael Scriven's thesaurus offers professionals and students a guide for understanding the relation of evaluation to the doctrine of value-free social science, ways to integrate the parts of multi-dimensional evaluations into an overall rating, the realities of evaluation consulting, and techniques for the use of spreadsheets in qualitative evaluation.

How does evaluative inquiry contribute to organizational learning? How can we practice evaluative inquiry in ways that maximize individual and team... learning? This book provides a data-based approach to organizational learning and change and focuses on the use of evaluative inquiry processes with organizations rather than across large-scale, multi-site programs. It contains four illustrative case studies, interview extracts, strategy plans and flow charts, diagrams and advice boxes that consultants can use for implementing their own training and development sessions.

Conceived in an embrace designed to comfort a dying man, born to a servant and raised as a hired hand, Eva Luna learns quickly that she has a talent... that belies her humble start: the gift of storytelling. As the years pass and her imprudent nature sends Eva from household to household—from the home of a doctor famed for mummifying the dead to a colorful whorehouse and the care of a beautiful transsexual—it is Eva’s magical imagination that keeps her alive and fuels her ardent encounters with lovers of all kinds. And as her South American homeland teeters on the brink of political chaos, and Eva’s fate is intertwined with guerrilla fighters and revolutionaries, she will find her life’s calling—and the soul mate who will envelop her in a love entirely beyond her mystical inventions.Eva Luna is a literary triumph, a novel brimming with battles and passions, rebellions and reunions—and some of the most exquisite characters Isabel Allende has ever created.

Barbara M. Cooper looks closely at the Sudan Interior Mission, an evangelical Christian mission that has taken a tenuous hold in a predominantly Hausa... Muslim area on the southern fringe of Niger. Based on sustained fieldwork, personal interviews, and archival research, this vibrant, sensitive, compelling, and candid book gives a unique glimpse into an important dimension of religious life in Africa. Cooper's involvement in a violent religious riot provides a useful backdrop for introducing other themes and concerns such as Bible translation, medical outreach, public preaching, tensions between English-speaking and French-speaking missionaries, and the Christian mission's changing views of Islam.