Evaluation Strategies

Program evaluation is a methodological area that is closely
related to, but distinguishable from, more traditional social science research
and utilizes many of the same methodologies as traditional research. As it
often takes place in a political and organizational context, it requires group
skills, management ability, political dexterity, sensitivity to multiple
stakeholders, and other skills not always needed in social science research.

Researchers may approach program evaluation from two different perspectives:
formative and summative. Formative evaluation is the process of judging an
ongoing, changing process or product for diagnosis, revision, description,
information, or comparison. The essence of formative evaluation is to improve
programs, understand their strengths in order to amplify them, or isolate and
address weaknesses. Summative evaluation, on the other hand, assesses outcomes
or effectiveness of programs that have already been (and may continue to be)
implemented. Summative evaluation is sometimes a final-end judgment serving
purposes of persuasion, verification, prediction, or validity. Its aim is to
identify patterns of performance, judging these against general criteria such
as effectiveness, value, or impact. Summative evaluation is commonly conducted
after completion of the activity for the benefit of an external audience.

Within the broad categories of formative and summative evaluation, there are
many different evaluation strategies that you could use to evaluate a program
or policy. Among those covered in your book are improvement-oriented
evaluations, needs assessments, and cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness
evaluations, just to name a few. Each has different strengths and weaknesses
and is more or less appropriate for specific research studies.

One and a half page with at least two reference….

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presenting an explanation from the context of ethics and the readings for this
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