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Utilization-Focused Evaluation: The New Century Text
Can 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.
This 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, Utilization-Focused The New Century Text, Third Edition tells how to conduct program evaluations and why to conduct them in the manner prescribed.
Each 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 Program evaluation ought to be useful and something different must be done if evaluation is to be useful.
Thought-provoking topics new to this edition
- Using participatory evaluation processes to change a program′s culture and build a learning organization.
- Alternative evaluator roles connected to varying situations and diverse evaluation purposes.
- Getting generating commitment to use.
- How evaluators can nurture results-oriented, reality-testing leadership in programs and organizations.
- Specific techniques for managing the power dynamics of working with primary intended users as well as evaluation stakeholders.
- A paradigm of choices beyond the qualitative-quantitative methods debate.
- Concrete and practical approaches for facilitating evaluation processes and working with diverse stakeholders.
- Development evaluation fully elaborated.
- Utilization-focused evaluation and the Experimenting Society (tribute to Donald T. Campbell).
- Ethical issues in utilization-focused evaluation.
- Fourteen fundamental premises of utilization-focused evaluation that are completely revised and updated.
In addition, Patton has supplemented the book with the following pedagogical features to enhance your, and your students′, understanding of the
- More than 50 new exhibits for teaching and training use.
- Menus developed as special tools for working with stakeholders in selecting evaluation decision options.
- New examples and ideas for useful presentations and graphics.
- Plus, the stories and parables you′′ve come to expect--and love--from Patton.
Written with humor, a soft touch, and the sound advice of two decades of experience, Utilization-Focused The New Century Text, Third Edition provides an overall framework and concrete advice for conducing useful evaluations.
This 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, Utilization-Focused The New Century Text, Third Edition tells how to conduct program evaluations and why to conduct them in the manner prescribed.
Each 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 Program evaluation ought to be useful and something different must be done if evaluation is to be useful.
Thought-provoking topics new to this edition
- Using participatory evaluation processes to change a program′s culture and build a learning organization.
- Alternative evaluator roles connected to varying situations and diverse evaluation purposes.
- Getting generating commitment to use.
- How evaluators can nurture results-oriented, reality-testing leadership in programs and organizations.
- Specific techniques for managing the power dynamics of working with primary intended users as well as evaluation stakeholders.
- A paradigm of choices beyond the qualitative-quantitative methods debate.
- Concrete and practical approaches for facilitating evaluation processes and working with diverse stakeholders.
- Development evaluation fully elaborated.
- Utilization-focused evaluation and the Experimenting Society (tribute to Donald T. Campbell).
- Ethical issues in utilization-focused evaluation.
- Fourteen fundamental premises of utilization-focused evaluation that are completely revised and updated.
In addition, Patton has supplemented the book with the following pedagogical features to enhance your, and your students′, understanding of the
- More than 50 new exhibits for teaching and training use.
- Menus developed as special tools for working with stakeholders in selecting evaluation decision options.
- New examples and ideas for useful presentations and graphics.
- Plus, the stories and parables you′′ve come to expect--and love--from Patton.
Written with humor, a soft touch, and the sound advice of two decades of experience, Utilization-Focused The New Century Text, Third Edition provides an overall framework and concrete advice for conducing useful evaluations.
448 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1978
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 2, 2020
This book offers a comprehensive overview of evaluation with both critical and conventional perspectives of the field. I highly recommend it. it’s a Surprisingly fun read, Patons humor is engaging and his reflections are thought-provoking
January 7, 2017
This is truly a 3.5 although the subject matter is a 5 for me!
A solid book regarding evaluation that desperately needs at least 100 pages edited from it. This was required reading for my Program Development course and it certainly is a treasure trove of information but at times I fell asleep trying to find said information amidst the case examples and tangential thoughts. I am pretty tangential myself (much to everyone in my classes' dismay!) yet this was a struggle for me.
Although the information is great, the organization is lacking within each chapter. Additionally, reconsidering the flow of chapters would benefit the entirety of the text, as well. I definitely found myself losing steam the more I had to read this because skimming is not entirely possible due to the important tidbits being scattered everywhere but also deeply necessary for one's sanity.
A solid book regarding evaluation that desperately needs at least 100 pages edited from it. This was required reading for my Program Development course and it certainly is a treasure trove of information but at times I fell asleep trying to find said information amidst the case examples and tangential thoughts. I am pretty tangential myself (much to everyone in my classes' dismay!) yet this was a struggle for me.
Although the information is great, the organization is lacking within each chapter. Additionally, reconsidering the flow of chapters would benefit the entirety of the text, as well. I definitely found myself losing steam the more I had to read this because skimming is not entirely possible due to the important tidbits being scattered everywhere but also deeply necessary for one's sanity.
January 12, 2017
This was a very interesting read - for a textbook. It's not dry like most textbooks and I actually enjoyed reading it.
That being said, I think it's best left to those with experience/prior training in social sciences and evaluation. There are a few concepts and theories that challenge the traditional perspective and might lead to confusion. What I mean is that it's best to understand something really well as it is before creatively messing with it. For example, his chapter on validity is clearly meant to propose a new type of validity - utility - and not meant to be a primer on the concept of validity and an inexperienced evaluator could come out of it thinking that usefulness=validity.
That being said, I think it's best left to those with experience/prior training in social sciences and evaluation. There are a few concepts and theories that challenge the traditional perspective and might lead to confusion. What I mean is that it's best to understand something really well as it is before creatively messing with it. For example, his chapter on validity is clearly meant to propose a new type of validity - utility - and not meant to be a primer on the concept of validity and an inexperienced evaluator could come out of it thinking that usefulness=validity.
January 28, 2009
I may get my American Evaluation Association membership revoked for giving this so few stars, but I was pretty underwhelmed by this alleged classic. Patton does a great job of introducing and explaining evaluation, and this is probably a great book to read if you either know nothing about evaluation or need something to keep you engaged on a long airplane ride. But for serious consumption, it's a little too user-friendly. The chattiness of the text and the excess of examples meant that I found myself highlighting practically nothing.
December 29, 2016
I found this text quite useful in helping me to develop a primary orientation of attention to evaluation use throughout all phases of an evaluation. This text provides a wonderful, shelf resource for how to think about and act on "primary intended use by primary intended users" and pushed my thinking about the purpose and impact of evaluative efforts in our modern society. I spent a couple of days immersed in this work as part of my doctoral studies and I am thankful for the academic exercise that prompted me to go so deep in this text.
February 21, 2010
Extra-boring.
March 22, 2010
4th editions still need editors. And I hate this book. Though I do not hate it quite as much as I now hate evaluation humor. Uggh.
May 30, 2011
This book contains a lot of useful information about data collection and analysis, but it could have been edited down a lot.
June 10, 2011
Loving this text. Excellent approach really outlines the pitfalls and the fact that evaluation is so individual. Loved the checklist at the end.
Currently Reading
November 3, 2013If I intend to put the end user in mind, evaluations will connect program priorities to the communities they serve.
Duh!
Duh!
December 10, 2014
This was required reading for my Monitoring and Evaluation course. The chapters are kind of long winded but very detailed and easy to understand.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews