Success in Evaluation


Book Description

Success in Evaluation takes a fundamentally different approach to the mainstream supply side discussion of evaluation quality, utilization, and learning. The contributors believe that a systematic focus on success will lead to increased awareness of evaluation and its findings, a more positive attitude, and a greater chance of actual evaluation use. This book offers many different lessons on how to improve evaluation design, research processes, and reporting. It is a realistic look at performance management, the evidence movement, and the demand barriers that so often block the role evaluators can play in organizational learning and decision-making. International case studies and lessons are included that both explain success-oriented methods and share insightful lessons from the real world. Together, they present a convincing case that evaluation for success allows for increased constructive interaction amongst both stakeholders and evaluators and, as a result, learning processes and outcomes will improve.




The Success Case Method


Book Description

Each year, organizations spend millions of dollars trying out new innovations and improvements-and millions will be wasted if they can't quickly find out what's working and what is not. The Success Case Method offers a breakthrough evaluation technique that is easier, faster, and cheaper than competing approaches, and produces compelling evidence decision-makers can actually use. Because it seeks out the best stories of how real individuals have actually used innovations, The Success Case Method can ferret out success no matter how small or infrequent. It can salvage the few ''gems'' of success from a larger initiative that is not doing well or find out how to make a partially successful effort even more successful. The practical methods and tools in this book can help those who initiate and foster change, including leaders, executives, managers, consultants, training directors, and anyone else who is trying to make things work better in organizations get the greatest returns for their investments.




Proceedings of a Workshop to Review PATH Strategy, Operating Plan, and Performance Measures


Book Description

The National Research Council's (NRC's) involvement with the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) started in 2000 with a three-year review and assessment of the PATH program. The resulting report, Promoting Innovation: 2002 Assessment of the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing, included a series of recommendations regarding the focus of the PATH program's goals and the performance measures used to manage the program and assess progress in its formative years. Subsequently, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) asked the NRC to convene a workshop to assess PATH's most recent draft strategy, operating plan, and performance measures to determine their responsiveness to the recommendations in the 2002 Assessment and their suitability for guiding PATH into the future. This report outlines the workshop discussions, which focused on the three major PATH goals. Workshop participants discussed possible strategies for improving communication among all the players in housing and housing innovation, and commented on a number of questions: Do the goals of the PATH program convey a clear idea of what PATH is trying to achieve? Are the performance measures effective in assessing progress toward the goals? Do the goals and measures provide an adequate indication of innovation in the housing industry? This report concludes with a discussion that focuses on the path forward and how the goals and performance measures could be improved to increase the probability of the success and growth of PATH.




Performance Evaluation


Book Description

Performance Evaluation is a hands-on text for practitioners, researchers, educators, and students in how to use scientifically-based evaluations that are both rigorous and flexible. Author Ingrid Guerra-López, an internationally-known evaluation expert, introduces the foundations of evaluation and presents the most applicable models for the performance improvement field. Her book offers a wide variety of tools and techniques that have proven successful and is organized to illustrate evaluation in the context of continual performance improvement.




Nonprofit Program Evaluation Made Simple


Book Description

Are you overwhelmed on how to do nonprofit program evaluation? You're not alone. Chari's here to help! There are many ways to do program evaluation, making it difficult to know how to start. In this book, Chari outlines a clear approach, filled with real world stories as well as examples of evaluation plans, surveys, and reports. Key topics addressed: Understand how to build buy-in for evaluation and address staff resistance and make a realistic program evaluation plan Create measurable outcomes for both grant applications and to guide program improvement Develop an impact and/or logic model that visually communicates what your program does and the difference it makes Create useful surveys that measure what matters Understand the choices in how to manage your data - spreadsheets v. database solutions Basic data analysis and reporting to make meaning of your data Included with the book is a link to a companion website filled with downloadable real world examples and templates.




Effective Chemistry Communication in Informal Environments


Book Description

Chemistry plays a critical role in daily life, impacting areas such as medicine and health, consumer products, energy production, the ecosystem, and many other areas. Communicating about chemistry in informal environments has the potential to raise public interest and understanding of chemistry around the world. However, the chemistry community lacks a cohesive, evidence-based guide for designing effective communication activities. This report is organized into two sections. Part A: The Evidence Base for Enhanced Communication summarizes evidence from communications, informal learning, and chemistry education on effective practices to communicate with and engage publics outside of the classroom; presents a framework for the design of chemistry communication activities; and identifies key areas for future research. Part B: Communicating Chemistry: A Framework for Sharing Science is a practical guide intended for any chemists to use in the design, implementation, and evaluation of their public communication efforts.




Evaluating Programs to Increase Student Achievement


Book Description

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.




Leap of Reason


Book Description

Leap of Reason is the product of decades of hard-won insights from philanthropist Mario Morino, McKinsey & Company, and top social-sector innovators. It is intended to spark the critically important conversations that every nonprofit board and leadership team should have in this new era of austerity. The authors make a convincing case that the nation's growing fiscal crisis will force all of us in the social sector to be clearer about our aspirations, more intentional in defining our approaches, more rigorous in gauging our progress, more willing to admit mistakes, more capable of quickly adapting and improving--all with an unrelenting focus on improving lives.




The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM


Book Description

Mentorship is a catalyst capable of unleashing one's potential for discovery, curiosity, and participation in STEMM and subsequently improving the training environment in which that STEMM potential is fostered. Mentoring relationships provide developmental spaces in which students' STEMM skills are honed and pathways into STEMM fields can be discovered. Because mentorship can be so influential in shaping the future STEMM workforce, its occurrence should not be left to chance or idiosyncratic implementation. There is a gap between what we know about effective mentoring and how it is practiced in higher education. The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM studies mentoring programs and practices at the undergraduate and graduate levels. It explores the importance of mentorship, the science of mentoring relationships, mentorship of underrepresented students in STEMM, mentorship structures and behaviors, and institutional cultures that support mentorship. This report and its complementary interactive guide present insights on effective programs and practices that can be adopted and adapted by institutions, departments, and individual faculty members.




Assessing with Respect


Book Description

Learn how approaching assessment through the lens of social and emotional learning can help ensure fair, equitable assessment; enhance learning; and improve students' emotional health.