Evaluation Essentials, Second Edition

"This second edition is all I could hope for to teach an introductory class on evaluation--at nearly any level, undergraduate or graduate. Experienced evaluators also can benefit from the clear, elegant explanations. Reading Evaluation Essentials has served as an opportunity for me to revisit and refresh my own answers to the various 'whats,' 'whys,' 'whos,' and 'hows' of evaluation. Many evaluation texts are pedantic, but not this one, which has a lively, conversational style. I especially appreciate the detailed case study accompanied by questions in each section that invite readers to apply what they have learned."--Sharon F. Rallis, EdD, Dwight W. Allen Distinguished Professor of Education Policy and Reform, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

"The strengths of this book are many. Students (and I) felt that they were learning from a very experienced evaluator. Alkin and Vo cover the key steps in an evaluation and clearly lay out the technical and practical details, including the writing of good, evaluable questions, which I generally find lacking in the literature. The easy-to-read, jargon-free language makes the book very accessible for novice evaluators. The case study exercises throughout the book help bring the concepts to life for students, and provide teachers with discussion questions for class participation."--Jill Anne Chouinard, PhD, School of Education, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

"I will continue to use Evaluation Essentials in teaching because its clarity, accessibility, and emphasis on relationship building are unparalleled in the field. This book provides careful explanations for why mixed methods--and sometimes very inventive ways of pursuing truth--are necessary in conducting accurate, comprehensive, and useful evaluations. The authors do a fantastic job of emphasizing that evaluators need to appreciate the sociopolitical context within which they work if they are to realize success."--Rick Sperling, PhD, Department of Psychology, St. Mary's University, Texas

"The second edition makes an already good book even better. Extending the RUPAS case study with the new thought questions is stimulating and useful for teaching and learning purposes. This text is particularly useful for providing students without an evaluation background with a nontechnical, straightforward, comprehensive introduction to the field. It covers virtually all the topics that a prospective evaluator is likely to run into in practice. Students in my graduate course often mentioned this 'ease of entry' into evaluation as a key strength of the book."--Robert J. Flynn, PhD, School of Psychology (Emeritus), University of Ottawa, Canada -