Visions of Quality: How Evaluators Define, Understand, and Represent Program Quality (Advances in Program Evaluation, Volume 7)

✍ Scribed by Alexis P. Benson, D. Michelle Hinn, Claire Lloyd

• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 285
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The field of programme evaluation is shaped by an ever-increasing range of approaches each of which, to varying degrees, reflects evaluation's dual role as a theoretical endeavour and a form of socio-political inquiry. There is an array of approaches, each emphasizing different purposes and endorsing different methodologies to guide practice. Yet, no matter which goals are pursued and which methods are employed, all evaluation involves an effort to conceptualize, comprehend, and convey the quality of the programme. This volume brings together the work of certain evaluators to explore the evaluation of programme quality. Through conceptual descriptions and applied examples they discuss the theoretical concerns and practical issues that give rise to their particular conceptions of quality, the methodologies they employ to pursue an understanding of these conceptions, and the representational forms they employ to convey their understanding to stakeholders.

✦ Table of Contents

CONTENTS......Page 6
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS......Page 8
PREFACE......Page 10
SECTION I......Page 14
1. REPRESENTING QUALITY IN
EVALUATION......Page 16
2. WHY FINDING NEW FORMS FOR REPRESENTING QUALITY MATTERS......Page 26
3 • REPRESENTING THE TRUTH
ABOUT PROGRAM QUALITY
THE TRUTH ABOUT
REPRESENTING PROGRAM
QUALITY......Page 32
4. COMMUNICATING QUALITY......Page 42
5. UNDERSTANDING PROGRAM QUALITY: A DIALECTIC PROCESS......Page 56
SECTION II......Page 68
6. THE RELATIONAL AND
DIALOGIC DIMENSIONS OF
PROGRAM QUALITY......Page 70
7 • EMPOWERMENT EVALUATION:
THE PURSUIT OF QUALITY......Page 86
8 • COMMUNICATING QUALITY AND
QUALITIES: THE ROLE OF THE
EVALUATOR AS CRITICAL FRIEND......Page 120
9 . CULTURE, STANDARDS, AND
PROGRAM QUALITIES......Page 134
10. DETERMINING PROGRAM
QUALITY OF A SOCIAL SERVICE
COLLABORATIVE USING CASE
STUDY METHODS AND MOVING
TOWARD PARTICIPATORY
EVALUATION......Page 148
SECTION III......Page 166
11. USE AS A CRITERION OF
QUALITY IN EVALUATION......Page 168
12. DESCRIPTIVE VALUES AND
SOCIAL JUSTICE......Page 194
13. DEFINING, IMPROVING, AND
COMMUNICATING PROGRAM
QUALITY......Page 214
SECTION IV......Page 230
14. EVALUATING THE AESTHETIC
FACE OF LEADERSHIP......Page 232
15. THE METAPHOR OF THE
PORTFOLIO IN EVALUATING
TEACHER EDUCATION
PROGRAMS......Page 250
16. PERFORMANCE-BASED
ASSESSMENT: A QUALITY
IMPROVEMENT STRATEGY......Page 266