|
| |
|
Tailoring Evaluations |
|
|
|
Topics |
 |
Who
does evaluations? |
|
Who is
your audience? |
|
Working with clients |
|
What
is tailored? |
|
Formative vs. summative evaluations |
|
Scientific vs. practical considerations |
|
Managing evaluation projects |
|
Detecting Cheaters and other unintended consequences |
|
|
|
|
Readings & Handouts |
|
Rossi,
et al. Chapters 2 & 3 |
|
Wholey,
et al. Chapters 1, 2, 4, 9, 10, 23-28 |
|
Reserve #2, #9, #10 |
|
Op Ed: Put a Little Science in Your Life (NY Time, June 1, 2008) |
|
Handout - What is an expert |
|
Handout
- Article on the importance of communicating results effectively with
PowerPoint presentations |
|
Handout - Risks,
Data, and Facts |
|
Handout - Problems in Education System |
|
Handouts - Read this
article in the
MailOnline that describes the results of a study on the importance
of eating more vegetables and
a
rebuttal of the study's conclusions from January '11 |
|
Handout - What
really makes Urban Roads Safer? Read this article in the USA
Today and give it some thought (Jan '11) |
|
Report - JAMA on Obesity
and Death (2005) and an article about
CDC linking risk of
death to obesity |
|
Handout - Junk Science and Health Care Reform (2009) |
|
Handout -
LA Nutrition Study Evaluation (Newsweek - 8/09) |
|
Handout -
Cheating in the Cash for Clunkers Program (USA Today 8/22/10) |
|
Handout - Cheating
teachers (Star News - 9/08) |
|
More on Cheating Teachers - USA Today investigative report: Testing
the System (Mar. '11) |
|
Report - Program Evaluation: Experienced Agencies Follow a Similar
Model For Prioritizing Research Needs - GAO-11-176 |
|
According the
World Health Organization (WHO), cell phones can cause brain
tumors and the press seems to agree (See
this collection of news reports of the WHO finding). But
do they?
See this critique of their finding and a
news account from 2
weeks prior to the WHO meeting that said the researchers
concluded that there was no clear link? Also be sure to read
page 5 of the
WHO press release that describes what a group 2b finding is and
think about what evidence is needed to reach that conclusion.
A statistical correlation is one thing but what about the
substantive significance of their finding. Understanding that
would require first understanding the baseline risk of getting any
type of brain cancer in the first place (See
NIH fact sheet) and then understanding that gliomas are a
subset of the various types of brain cancer and are relatively rare
amount the different types. Moreover, if cell phones did cause
cancer, shouldn't there be some detectable increase in brain tumors
considering they have been in widespread use for more than a decade?
There does not appear to be much evidence in the medical literature
that this is the case. |
|
|
|
|
Lecture
Notes |
|
|
|
|
|
Web
Resources |
|
Professional Societies for Evaluators |
|
|
|
|
| Organizations and Think Tanks Involved in Evaluation
Research |
|
Mathematical Policy Research, Inc. |
| Rand Corporation |
| Urban Institute |
| Brookings Institution |
| American Enterprise Institute |
| Heritage
Foundation |
| Hudson
Institute |
| Hoover
Institution |
| CATO Institute |
|
Resources for the
Future |
|
John Locke
Foundation |
|
National
League of Cities |
|
National Association
of Counties (NaCo) |
|
National Governor's
Association |
| ABT
Associates |
| MDRC
(nonprofit education and social policy research organization) |
| Pew Charitable Trusts |
|
United Way of America, Outcome Measurement
Resource Network |
| U.S. Government Accounting Office |
| U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality |
|
DOE, Energy, Efficiency, and Renewable Energy, Program Evaluation |
|
DOJ,
Bureau of Justice Assistance, Center for Program Evaluation |
|
Center for Disease
Control, Evaluation Working Group |
|
UCLA
Center for Health Policy Research |
|
| |
| Evaluation Journals |
| American Journal of Evaluation |
| New Directions for Program Evaluation |
| Evaluation Review (formerly Evaluation
Quarterly) |
| Evaluation Studies Review Annual |
| Evaluation Practice, Evaluation, and Program
Planning |
| Journal of Public Policy Analysis and
Management |
| Evaluation in Education |
| Evaluation and Human Services |
| Evaluation and the Health Professions |
|
| |
| General Sources for Evaluation Studies |
|
|
|