Proficiency Examination:
Topics and Readings in PPOL: Advanced Program Evaluation

Helpful Evaluation Readings - Texts Used in PPOL 8630.

Gray, Sandra Trice and Associates, Evaluation with Power: A New Approach to Organizational Effectiveness, Empowerment, and Excellence. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1998).

Palumbo, Dennis J., ed., The Politics of Program Evaluation (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1987). (on reserve)

Rossi, Peter; Howard Freeman, and Mark Lipsy (1999). Evaluation: Systematic Approach (Sage Publications).

Royce, David; Bruce Thyer, Deborah Padett, and T.K. Logan (2001). Program Evaluation: An Introduction (Brooks/Cole, Thomson Learning).

Weiss, Carol. Evaluation: Methods for Studying Programs and Policies. (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1998).

Other Helpful Readings

Annie Casey Foundation (1999). “Evaluating Initiatives that Strengthen Families and Build Communities” in Transforming Neighborhoods into Family-Supporting Environment: Evaluation Issues and Challenges.

Besharov, Douglas, Peter Germanis and Peter Rossi (1997). “Experimental Vs. Quasi- Experimental Designs” In Evaluating Welfare Reform (College Park, MD: University of Maryland), pp 41-52.

Bingham, Richard and Claire Felbinger. Eds. Evaluation in Practice: A Methodological Approach (White Plains, NY: Longman, Inc., 1989).

Blum, Barbara “View of a Policymaker and Public Administrator,” in Lessons from the Income Maintenance Experiments, ed: Alicia H. Munnell, proceedings of a conference held in September 1986 (Boston, MA: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 1987), pp 227-244.

Brodkin, Evelyn (1997). “Inside the Welfare Contract: Discretion and Accountability in State Welfare Administration.” Social Service Review, pp. 1-33.
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Burtless, Gary (1986). The Case for Randomized Field Trials in Economic and Policy Research. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9(2), pp. 63-84.

Burtless, Gary and Larry Orr (1986). Are Classical Experiments Needed for Manpower Policy? The Journal of Human Resources, pp. 606-639.

Churchill, Nancy (1995). “Ending Welfare As We Know It: A Case Study in Urban Anthropology and Public Policy.” Urban Anthropology, pp. 5-35.

Cook, Thomas and Donald Campbell. (1979) Quasi-Experimentation: Design & Analysis Issues for Field Settings. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company).

Covey, Herbert (1982). Basic Problems of Applying Experiments to Social Programs. Social Service Review, pp. 424-437.

Elmore, Richard. “A Political Scientist’s View of the Income Maintenance Experiments,” in Lessons from the Income Maintenance Experiments, ed. Alicia H. Munnell, proceedings of a conference held in September 1986 (Boston, MA: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 1987), pp 206-127.

Federalism Research Group (1997). State Capacity Field Research Report Form. Albany, New York: The Nelson Rockefeller Institute of Government.

Goodburn, Nancy (1985). “The Psychological Impact of Being on Welfare.” Social Service Review, pp. 403-422.

Hagen, Jan and Liane Davis (1995). “The Participants’ Perspective on the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program.” Social Service Review, pp. 656-677.
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Heckman, Gary and Jeffrey Smith (1995). Assessing the Case for Social Experiments. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9(2), pp. 85-110.

Initiatives, “in New Approaches to Evaluating Community Initiatives, James P. Connell, et. Al., ed. (Washington, DC: Aspen Institute).

King, Gary; Robert Keohane and Sidney Verba (1994). Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research (NJ: Princeton University Press).

Lewis, Dan (2000). “Some Thoughts on Qualitative Methods and Welfare Research” in Quarterly Newsletter of the Joint Center for Poverty Research, Vol. 4, No. 1.

Maynard, Rebecca. “ Whether a Sociologist, Psychologist or Simply a Skilled Evaluator: Learning Evaluation Practice in the U.S.” Evaluation, Vol. 6, number 4, pp 471-480.

Nathan, Richard. “Lessons for Future Public Policy and Reseach,” in Lessons from the Income Maintenance Experiments, ed. Alicia H. Munnell, proceedings of a conference held in Septiember 1986 (Boston, MA: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 1987), pp245-255.

Newman, Katherine (1998). Tyesha’s Dilemmas: Anthropological Ruminations on the Consequences of Welfare Reform. Paper presented at the Joint Center for Poverty Research Conference on Welfare “Family Process and Child Development, “ May 7-8, 1998.

Orr, Larry (1997). Social Experimentation: Evaluating Public Programs with Experimental Methods.
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Patton, Michael (1987). How to Use Qualitative Methods in Evaluation. (Sage Publications).

Pollark, Robert. Notes on how Economists Think. Paper presented at the Joint Center for Poverty Research Conference on Welfare “Family Process and Child Development,” May 7-8, 1998.

Posavic, Emil and Raymond G. Carey. Program Evaluation: Methods and Case Studies. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2003).

Rainwater, Lee. “ A Sociologist’s View of the Income Maintenance Experiments,” in Lessons from the Income Maintenance Experiments, ed. Alicia H. Munnell, proceedings of a conference held in September 1986 (Boston, MA: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 1987), pp. 194-205

Reichardt, Charles and Sharon Raillis (1994). The Relationship Between the Qualitative and Quantitative Traditions. In The Qualitative-Quantitative Debate, ed. Charles Reichardt, et al. (San Franciscon: Jossey-Bass Publishers), pp. 5-11.

Rosener, Judy (1978). “Citizen Participation: Can We Measure Its Effectiveness?” Public Administration Review, pp 457-463.

Rossi, Peter (1987). “The Iron Law of Evaluation and Other Metallic Roles.” In Research in Social Problems & Public Policy, ed. Joan H. Miller and Michael Lewis, vol 4, pp. 3-20. (Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press).

Solow, Robert. “An Economist’s View of the Income Maintenance Experiments,” in Lessons from the Income Maintenance Experiments, ed.
Alicia H. Munnell, proceedings of a conference held in September 1986 (Boston, MA: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 1987). pp. 218-226.
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U.S. General Accounting Office (1991) Designing Evaluations. GAO/PEMD-10.1.4, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office)

U.S. General Accounting Office (1990) Case Study Evaluations, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office).

Weiss, Carol (1972). Evaluation Research: Methods of Assessing Program Effectiveness. (NJ: Prentice-Hall).

Wolcott, Harry (1994). Transforming Qualitative Data: Description, Analysis and Interpretation. (SAGE Publications), pp. 9-54.
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Topics In Program Evaluation.

• Program evaluation versus policy making
• Designs: experimental, quasi-experimental, qualitative, case studies, other
• The politics of evaluation
• Evaluation research and program evaluation
• Measuring costs – efficiency.
• Cost benefit analysis; cost effectiveness
• Process evaluations
• Roles of evaluators
• Ethical Issues surrounding evaluations
• Sources of Data for evaluations
• Outputs, outcomes, and impacts
• Analysis versus administration
• Communicating results of program evaluations

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