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Utilization-Focused Evaluation: The New Century Text

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Author: Michael Quinn Patton
Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$77.95~~
Buy Used: $3.86
You Save: $74.09 (95%)

New (13) Used (42) from $3.86

Media: Paperback
Edition: 3rd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 10 x 7.1 x 1.1

ISBN: 0803952651
Dewey Decimal Number: 361.61072
EAN: 9780803952652
ASIN: 0803952651

Publication Date: October 30, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
pCan evaluation be used to improve programs? Can it contribute to program effectiveness? Do evaluators bear any responsibility for evaluation use and program improvement? This skillfully honed revision by master storyteller and evaluator Michael Quinn Patton grapples with the answers to these questions and provides the most comprehensive review and integration ever done of the vast literature on evaluation use and practice. Earlier editions are popular with more than 26,000 students of evaluation as a core or supplemental text. /ppThis entirely rewritten edition offers readers a full-fledged evaluation text from identifying primary users of an evaluation to focusing the evaluation, making methods decisions, analyzing data, and presenting findings. Both practical and theoretical, strongUtilization-Focused Evaluation: The New Century Text, Third Edition/strong tells how to conduct program evaluations and why to conduct them in the manner prescribed. /ppEach chapter contains a review of the relevant literature and actual case examples to illustrate major points. Finally, the book offers a definite point of view developed from observing much of what has passed for program evaluation that has not been very useful: Program evaluation ought to be useful and something different must be done if evaluation is to be useful. /ppThought-provoking topics new to this edition are: br /- Using participatory evaluation processes to change a program's culture and build a learning organization. br /- Alternative evaluator roles connected to varying situations and diverse evaluation purposes. br /- Getting started: generating commitment to use. br /- How evaluators can nurture results-oriented, reality-testing leadership in programs and organizations. br /- Specific techniques for managing the power dynamics of working with primary intended users as well as evaluation stakeholders. br /- A paradigm of choices beyond the qualitative-quantitative methods debate. br /- Concrete and practical approaches for facilitating evaluation processes and working with diverse stakeholders. br /- Development evaluation fully elaborated. br /- Utilization-focused evaluation and the Experimenting Society (tribute to Donald T. Campbell). br /- Ethical issues in utilization-focused evaluation. br /- Fourteen fundamental premises of utilization-focused evaluation that are completely revised and updated. /ppIn addition, Patton has supplemented the book with the following pedagogical features to enhance your, and your students', understanding of the concepts: br /- More than 50 new exhibits for teaching and training use. br /- Menus developed as special tools for working with stakeholders in selecting evaluation decision options. br /- New examples and ideas for useful presentations and graphics. br /- Plus, the stories and parables you''ve come to expect--and love--from Patton. /ppWritten with humor, a soft touch, and the sound advice of two decades of experience, strongUtilization-Focused Evaluation: The New Century Text, Third Edition /strongprovides an overall framework and concrete advice for conducing useful evaluations./p

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars

Overarching Evaluation Text February 8, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

The U-FE framework is primarily a text about user focused evaluation. I have found this text to be both useful and comforting. The usefulness of the book begins with taking a novice evaluator, I am one, through some very basic activities to help build evaluation skills of professionals. br /Patton starts with the rationale the many evaluations are unused. Then he builds his case for use throughout the entire text. He continues to develop the strengths and weaknesses of goal based and goal free evaluation. Ultimately he states that evaluations need to have use for primary users and that evaluations need to measure client outcomes. Did the program actually change, maintain, prevent something in the target population.br /There are few books in any profession that admit working with human based systems is very difficult. Patton lays out the highly complex feelings and emotions that an evaluator deals with at any point in the evaluation process. I know as a teacher that sometimes our profession misses that we have a tremendous impact on students. I know that it is a platitude. Evaluation is a relatively new field with few institutions currently offering degrees in evaluation, so Patton offers a lot of insight into this highly complex and still developing field.br /There are some very practical menus offered in the text as well. Approaching any consulting work with a list of viable and workable choices is a good thing. I find that understanding the choices helps me to focus on what is right for the primary users of the evaluation. Focusing on the primary intended users is good business. Not only is it good business, but I believe that working in challenging situations it is good to allow people to decide what course to take. Many criticize this approach for being to close to the program being evaluated, and I disagree with this notion. There is little evidence in my experience or in the literature to suggest that any interaction with human systems can be objective. People are smart and keeping a distance may add unintended consequences to any evaluation. br /Patton is suggesting working with intended users to increase evaluation use. Evaluation that are completed and never used is a waste of time and resources. I find Patton's book helpful in keeping my interest in evaluation because I do want to be part of a world that I can help make better. br /

5 out of 5 stars

No shippment recieved... August 16, 2005
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Still have not recived shippment, long overdue and I am very annoyed as I really needed that book urgently....br /br /The book is great as I have used it before, but your shippment service is extrememly poor....

5 out of 5 stars

A key reference text for evaluators at all levels April 12, 2002
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

One of the most important books on evaluation ever written, and this third edition is better than ever. How to ensure that evaluation results are put to maximum use, by involving key stakeholders as true partners in the effort from start to finish. This is evalution for the new century at its finest. And fun to read as well.

4 out of 5 stars

Thought provoking and easy to read February 28, 2002
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

I found this book to provide a very useful summary of a philosophy of evaluation that seems very valuable. Despite the horrible title the test is easy to read, and scattered with funny stories which may be an advantage or disadvantage depending on your perspective.pThe first two parts are largely philosophical, with the later parts providing more of the practical back-up.pI am not convinced by all of Patton's arguments, but he certainly gives evaluators food for thought.

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