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Session Title: Program Theory and Theory-Driven Evaluation TIG Business Meeting and Panel: Improving Evaluation Quality by Improving Program Quality: A Theory-based/Theory-driven Perspective
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Business Meeting with Panel Session 742 to be held in Lone Star A on Saturday, Nov 13, 10:00 AM to 10:45 AM
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Sponsored by the Presidential Strand
and the Program Theory and Theory-driven Evaluation TIG
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| TIG Leader(s):
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John Gargani, Gargani + Company, john@gcoinc.com
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Katrina Bledsoe, Walter R McDonald and Associates Inc, katrina.bledsoe@gmail.com
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| Chair(s): |
| Katrina Bledsoe, Walter R McDonald and Associates Inc, katrina.bledsoe@gmail.com
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| Discussant(s):
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| Michael Scriven, Claremont Graduate University, mjscriv1@gmail.com
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| David Fetterman, Fetterman & Associates, fettermanassociates@gmail.com
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| Charles Gasper, Missouri Foundation for Health, cgasper@mffh.org
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| Abstract:
The principle that quality evaluation promotes better programs is well accepted. However, the other half of that equation—that quality programs promote better evaluation—is rarely considered. This panel will examine this missing half and suggest how evaluators can foster a virtuous circle of program quality promoting evaluation quality that in turn promotes program quality. By approaching this dynamic relationship from a distinctly theory-based/theory-driven perspective, the panel will address how the real-world problems of program design, execution, and funding provide concrete opportunities for evaluators to use program theory to improve programs while improving their practice.
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The Relationship Between Program Design and Evaluation Design
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| Stewart Donaldson, Claremont Graduate University, stewart.donaldson@cgu.edu
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How we evaluate depends on what is being evaluated. There is arguably an underlying logic of evaluation, but evaluating a washing machine is different from evaluating a science curriculum or a large-scale social program, and the approach an evaluator chooses can and should take advantage of those differences. In spite of the push for evidence-based programs, however, programs remain stubbornly difficult to describe before an evaluation begins. Programs are largely intangible, often improvised, and rarely designed in systematic ways. In this presentation, I will discuss how evaluators can use program theory to connect evidence to program design, and how they can leverage program designs to improve the quality of their evaluations.
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The Expanding Profession: Program Evaluators as Program Designers
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| John Gargani, Gargani + Company, john@gcoinc.com
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Accountants do more than count. Plumbers do more than work with lead. And program evaluators do more than judge the merit or worth of a program. Increasingly, we are being called upon to use our expertise to help design programs and to judge the quality of programs based on their designs. In this presentation, I will discuss how evaluators might undertake the work of designing programs, the role that program theory plays in program design, and how the quality of programs and evaluations can benefit from a better design process.
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