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Session Title: Public Issues Forum: Multiple Perspectives on the Politics of Evaluation
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Panel Session 298 to be held in Capitol Ballroom Section 5 on Thursday, Nov 6, 1:40 PM to 3:10 PM
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Sponsored by the Presidential Strand
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| Chair(s): |
| Leslie J Cooksy,
University of Delaware,
ljcooksy@udel.edu
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| Discussant(s):
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| William Trochim,
Cornell University,
wmt1@cornell.edu
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| Abstract:
Evaluation is an inherently political endeavor. This panel considers issues in evaluation politics from different perspectives. The panel starts with a presentation of how evaluation politics are experienced at the local level, where evaluation practice may be driven by directives from state or federal funders. This is followed by a discussion of the interplay of politics and practice in evaluations of federal demonstrations. An outside perspective is provided by the third speaker, a journalist with experience in communicating politically-sensitive evaluation findings to the public. The fourth presentation will shed light on cross-cultural similarities and differences in the ways that politics affects evaluation. Finally, the panel's discussant connects the issues identified by each speaker to the theme of the conference: evaluation policy, focusing in particular on the role of evaluation policy in creating and resolving political challenges in evaluation practice.
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Negotiating Across Cultures: Perspectives on Politics in an International Development Agency
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| Patrick Grasso,
The World Bank,
pgrasso45@comcast.net
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Patrick Grasso is a senior consultant with the World Bank where, among many other projects, he co-edited the volume, The World Bank Operations Evaluation Department: The First 30 Years. Before joining the World Bank, Dr. Grasso was at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, where he led several high profile studies for Congress. At both GAO and the World Bank, Dr. Grasso has had ample opportunity to see politics manifest itself in all aspects of evaluation. In this presentation, he will focus on his experiences with the World Bank and discuss cross-cultural issues in evaluation, with particular attention to evaluation capacity development. He will share lessons learned about building evaluation capacity and influencing evaluation policy in the context of international politics.
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Feeling Free: The Perspective of an Evaluator in an Academic Setting
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| Leonard Bickman,
Vanderbilt University,
leonard.bickman@vanderbilt.edu
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Professor Leonard Bickman directs the Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement at Vanderbilt Peabody College. He has led several large, federally-funded evaluations, including the evaluation of the Fort Bragg Continuum of Care for Children and Adolescents, which received the American Evaluation Association's Outstanding Evaluation Award. In the academic setting, Professor Bickman and CEPI have independence in the kinds of evaluations they take on, which protects them from certain aspects of evaluation politics. However, they are still influenced by political decisions about what gets evaluated, how much money is dedicated to evaluation, and what kinds of evaluation approaches are preferred. Professor Bickman will draw on his experiences to identify political issues in evaluation practice in the academic environment.
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In the Public Eye: Evaluation Politics from a Journalist's Perspective
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| Lesley Dahlkemper,
Schoolhouse Communications,
lesley@schoolhousecom.com
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Lesley Dahlkemper has extensive experience in journalism, public policy, politics and strategic communications. For over a decade, she was a national-award winning reporter for the National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate in Denver and a regular contributor to NPR, the Osgood Files, and Monitor Radio. Today, she is the president of Schoolhouse Communications, a Denver firm specializing in helping education clients communicate effectively about the need for school improvement and system-wide change. Her clients have included the American Association of School Administrators, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and the National Education Association. Lesley has managed a multi-million dollar Annenberg grant focused on comprehensive school reform for Education Commission of the States and served on the board of the national Education Writers Association. Lesley will draw upon her professional experience to explain how evaluation efforts factor into news coverage of political issues - particularly in the area of education reform.
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Variations in Political Influences: Evaluation Politics from an International Perspective
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| Peter Dahler-Larsen,
University of Southern Denmark,
pdl@sam.sdu.dk
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Peter Dahler-Larsen is a professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Management at the University of Southern Denmark and past president of the European Evaluation Society. His research interests include cultural and institutional aspects of evaluation and he has published widely on issues of evaluation and public management, evaluation theory, and evaluation and democracy. Together with Jonathan Breul and Richard Boyle, he edited Open to the Public: Evaluation in the Public Sector, exploring the new roles of evaluative information in a public arena characterized by political images and new media. Dr. Dahler-Larsen will draw on his evaluation experiences in Denmark, including a study he conducted of evaluation, power and democracy as a part of the Danish Parliament's inquiry into power and democracy in Denmark, to address issues of politics and policy in evaluation.
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