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Session Title: What Counts in Social Services Evaluation: Values and Valuing in Evaluation Practice
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Panel Session 556 to be held in Pacific A on Friday, Nov 4, 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM
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Sponsored by the Human Services Evaluation TIG
, the Social Work TIG, and the Presidential Strand
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| Chair(s): |
| Tracy Wharton, University of Michigan, trcharisse@gmail.com
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| Discussant(s):
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| Thomas Schwandt, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, tschwand@illinois.edu
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| Abstract:
This panel session responds to the conference theme by exploring the role of values and valuing in social services evaluation. The panelists, accomplished evaluators representing different areas in social services evaluation and different regions of the United States, will present reflections on their professional experiences with values and valuing. Specific topics include values assumed in particular evaluation approaches and methods, valuing the interests of different and often conflicting stakeholders, value conflicts inherent to evaluation practice, and the appropriate use of data to meet both professional and ethical standards. Taken together, these reflections identify and examine significant issues in the field of social services evaluation. The discussant will draw on his broad experience in evaluation to place these issues into the larger context of evaluation theory and practice, and offer specific implications on values and valuing.
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Evaluation Itself is a Value: Combining Effectiveness Research and Epidemiology in a Naturalistic Realist Evaluation
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| Mansoor Kazi, State University of New York, Buffalo, mkazi@buffalo.edu
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It is unethical to provide a social service without evaluating its effectiveness, and yet agencies collect enormous amounts of data and do not use it for evaluation. These data can be de-identified and utilized in a 100%, naturalistic and unobtrusive evaluation, at regular intervals in real-time, thereby integrating evaluation into practice and enabling practice decisions to be informed by evidence. This is part of the realist evaluation paradigm, examining patterns in the data among demographics, intervention, and outcomes, to investigate what works, for whom and in what contexts. The anonymity of service users is protected and at the same time there is greater accountability from the agency. The value of evaluation is helping to develop more effective social services and providing evidence of their effectiveness on demand. This evaluation is done in partnership with stakeholders (e.g., analyzing their own data with them), enhancing the valuing of evaluation in society.
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Value Conflicts Within Social Services: Framing the Questions for Quality, Value, and Importance
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| Louis Thiessen Love, Uhlich Children's Advantage Network, lovel@ucanchicago.org
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The context of providing and evaluating social service programs is complex, including a set of stakeholders with differing and potentially conflicting values. As evaluation is most often used to determine "quality, value, or importance" of a social service program, it is appropriate to ask "Whose values are informing these judgments?" Yet the very act of asking the question "whose values are in use?" is an act rooted in a value framework of equity and justice. House and Howe (1998 in AJE) propose a "deliberative democratic approach" and endorse that evaluators should be "advocates for democracy and the public interest... an egalitarian conception of justice" (pp. 233-236). Using this value framework, value conflicts and how they affect evaluation priorities, implementation, and use are explored. This discussion will consider systems evaluation factors that address approaches to evaluating how well programs address value conflicts in delivering various social services.
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Power and Values: The Role of Client Voice in the Evaluation of Human Services
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| Rob Fischer, Case Western Reserve University, fischer@case.edu
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The evaluation of programs in the social services arena is unique in regard to the dynamic between the clients and the service providers. Often service recipients come from the most disenfranchised sub-populations within society and are at high levels of need and risk when then come into contact with services. The combination of these factors suggests that they are at particular risk for further disempowerment by the evaluation process. To guard against this, evaluation professionals need to take special care in crafting evaluation approaches to ensure that the client perspective is well represented. This presentation will illustrate methods and pitfalls relating to the inclusion of client perspectives in program evaluation. The presentation will propose tiers of client participation in evaluation based on the program context, client characteristics, and funder approach to evaluation, as a mechanism for ensuring maximum client representation.
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Values and Politics in Evaluation: When Only Positive Results Will Do
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| Todd Franke, University of California, Los Angeles, tfranke@ucla.edu
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Evaluation has been talked about as a rational enterprise designed to say something about programs or policies, sometimes both. When done appropriately, the evaluation conclusions inform "decision-makers," enabling them to make informed and hopefully wise choices. However, in nearly all cases, evaluation takes place in a political context. The political context may range from being very insular and local to much more regional or national, but it is almost omnipresent. Political considerations often intrude and whether explicitly recognized or not values play a role throughout the process. This presentation will focus on how values (e.g., personal, instructional, political) influence the design, selection, and use/dissemination of the results from the standpoint of decision-makers who often reside much closer to the political arena.
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A Conflict of Values? Social Services Evaluation in For-profit Organizations
| Katrina Bledsoe, Education Development Center Inc, katrina.bledsoe@gmail.com
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It is rare that one mentions social services and for-profit organizations within the same breath; social service provision and evaluation of those services are usually associated with non-profit status. Yet, many for-profit research and evaluation organizations typically conduct work on non-profit and altruistic agendas. Given the divergence between the two, how do for-profit organizations reconcile the values of a profit-driven business model with those of a non-profit agenda of altruism and selflessness? The presenter discusses the tug between business (e.g., profit making, profit sharing), social services values (e.g., funneling funding into service provision), and clients who do not operate under or understand the business model. How do for-profit organizations and non-profit clients coalesce on a similar agenda? What process is used to agree on common values that suit both agendas? The presenter refers to her experiences working in for-profit organizations juxtaposed against conducting federally-funded social services evaluations.
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