The Program Evaluation Standards

Book excerpt: "The Program Evaluation Standards is a 'must-have' book for anyone responsible for reviewing evaluation proposals, planning and conducting evaluations, managing evaluation projects, or judging the merit and worth of evaluations once completed. For experienced practitioners, it provides a set of values and principles by which to guide successful practice, that is, a set of criteria that determines whether educational evaluations are trustworthy and fair. The Standards sets expectations of the design and implementation of educational evaluation for all practitioners in all types of educational arenas, even those involved in social programming endeavors. For newcomers and those less experienced who may be responsible for commissioning and using evaluations, the Standards supplies a useful framework of generating a list of questions to raise about any evaluation plan or final report in an effort to assess its pros and cons. The book is an invaluable 'how-to' resource for graduate students venturing out into the field, and it instills a sense of what it means to be a responsible evaluator. For clients or consumers, the book offers advice on what they should expect of an evaluation"--Publisher description.