Public Program Evaluation - Literature review Example

PROGRAM EVALUATION ………………….. College/ ……………… ……………. Introduction Program evaluation using scientifically credible research tools is a valuable professional skill that every human service practitioner will be strongly interested in learning whether the tasks or services provided assigned to them do help their clients they are intended to serve. Langbein and Felbinger (2006) defined Program evaluation as a method of applying empirical science research tools to the process of judging the effectiveness of public policies, programs, projects and their management practices for decision making purposes (p. 3). This piece of research work is an attempt to describe the roles of a program evaluator and examine why the selection of an evaluator important to the program evaluation. This paper presents issues related to internal, government and private research evaluators. The paper also outlines underlying differences between the concepts of quality improvement, quality management and program evaluation. Roles of Program Evaluator A major role of an evaluator is that of encouraging use, especially use of results and uses of evaluations. An evaluator is is one who interacts with stakeholders and other users of the program and therefore the evaluator can be regarded as a critical friend as his primary objective is learning. For better learning, the evaluator must be a trusted person as well (Fitzpatrick, Sanders and Worthen, 2004, p. 12) An evaluator is also playing the role of a teacher by helping practitioners to develop judgment and critical decision making processes. Apart from a typical teacher’s role, he is expected to play roles of facilitator, collaborator, management consultant and social change agent, because, an evaluator is one who works with organization or for client to bring about developmental change. Program Evaluation involves deliang with data, information and knowledge and thus an evaluator brings about organizational learning, knowledge sharing and establishing a learning environment (Fitzpatrick, Sanders and Worthen, 2004, p. 12). In order to facilitate democratic decision making, the evaluator stimulates dialogue among various groups related to the program, rather than merely reporting or providing information to a limited stakeholders who are likely to use it. The evaluators help policy makers and managers select the dimensions of performance analysis and tools required to use in measuring and assessing the performance (Fitzpatrick, Sanders and Worthen, 2004, P. 13). An evaluator is a scientific expert, because, an efficient evaluator is one who has expertise of tracking things down, systematically observe and assess those things, make strategic comparison, analysis and interpretation of those things. Negotiating with related groups, developing contracts, hiring and supervising staffs, managing finance, collecting and assessing qualitative and quantitative information, communicating with others and preparing reports and analysis are some of the major activities that an evaluator is expected to do in carrying out above detailed roles (Fitzpatrick, Sanders and Worthen, 2004, p. 13-14). Why is Selection of an Evaluator important? An efficient evaluator requires various skills and abilities and he has to play various roles in program evaluation and therefore selecting an evaluator is as critical as recruiting an appropriate manager for the required job. As in the case of recruiting personnel, selection of an evaluator also can be based on a resume or past evaluation reports so that whether the evaluator is best fitting the desired task can be determined (Fitzpatrick, Sanders and Worthen, 2004, p. 191). . Selection of an evaluator requires that the person must be able, qualified and skillful for negotiation, better communication, data handling, interpretation, knowledge analyzing and managing, supervising staffs, managing finance and preparing reports can be selected. Fitzpatrick, Sanders and Worthen (2004) suggested that conducting interview, if possible by representatives of different clients, will be helpful to assess candidate’s oral communication and to understand his interest in the desired program, sensitivity to clients and overall performance as well (p. 192) Issues related to internal and external evaluators Program evaluators are normally employed by one of three forms of organizations, they are 1) internal evaluators, 2) Government or Regulatory evaluators and 3) Private research firms. As far as Internal Evaluators are considered, they work for the agencies providing the services to be evaluated. One of the severe issues that they often face is explicit or implicit pressure to provide favorable evaluations if they work directly under the manager of the service, and therefore it is suggested that they shouldn’t directly work under the manager of the service (Posavac and Carey, 2007, p. 17). Government or regulatory evaluators are employed by governmental or regulatory agencies. For instance, the U.S Government Accountability Office (GAO) regulates evaluators by the request of Congress members, and therefore its reports can greatly influence federal legislation. The major issue being often faced by Governmental or regulatory evaluators is that there are supporters for Government-sponsored evaluations who seriously watch and guard the evaluation (Posavac and Carey, 2007, p. 17). Private research firms are another different small or large organizational setting that submit proposals for contracts to evaluate government or privately funded programs. They submit proposals judged on the basis costs incurred, the reputation of the evaluators and overall quality of the proposed method. Both Governmental or regulatory and private research firm evaluators often face issues of relatively less relation with the organization. They are less likely to have more knowledge of the program to be evaluated as compared with internal evaluators, less likely to be familiar with different stakeholders and their interests, less likely to have knowledge of the history of the organization and are less likely to continue with the organization (Fitzpatrick, Sanders and Worthen, 2004, p. 187). Part- 2: Program Evaluation and Initiatives Differences between Program Evaluation, Quality Improvement, Quality management and performance improvement programs Langbein and Felbinger (2006) detailed that program evaluation is a method which uses controlled observational methods to find conclusions about the effectiveness of the public programs. Measuring and finding the effectiveness of the program is not only scientific, but also normative part of the program evaluation (p. 5). Posavac and Carey (2007) emphasized that a program evaluation seeks to identify and assess the levels of needs that are yet to be met in an organization. Assessing those un-met needs are basic step in a program evaluation. When the program has been well planned, developed and started, the evaluators take the tasks of documenting the results and the extent to which the program implementation has been completed (p. 7). Quality Management and Quality assurance are parts of Program evaluation (Royse, Thyer and Padgett, 2009), where as broader concepts as it relate to various interdisciplinary and subject areas like management, HRM, manufacturing, service industries, supply chain, customer relation, marketing and so on. For example, Quality assurance is a basic form of evaluation that involves determining compliance with some set of standards (Royse, Thyer and Padgett, 2009, p. 132). For example, after the product are designed and manufactured, a quality manager may endeavor to ensure whether the products meet that standards that were set earlier, based some tools and strategies that are widely used in Quality Management field. Quality Improvement is often considered as ‘control’ step in which a quality manager may take necessary action in order to rectify any errors or quality issues or any deviations from the standards that were set before, identified through quality assurance steps and tools. Quliaty improvement and performance improvement are used interchangeably. Basically, the evaluation methods can be used to determine the quality of activities, apart from the program (Meisenheimer, 1997, p. 183). As far as quality management is concerned, Total Quality Management has recently become a major topic related to business and other organization, in which everyone in the organization, not only evaluators or not only a particular group of personnel, is committed to bring continuous improvement of his or her part of operation (Bateman and Snell, 2003). Conclusion This paper has highlighted major roles of Program evaluator like roles of teacher, facilitator, manager etc and has explained why careful selection of the evaluator is critically important. The paper has outlined various issues faced by three forms of evaluators, namely internal, governmental and private research evaluators. The paper has outlined basic differences between program evaluation, performance improvement, quality management and quality improvement. References Bateman and Snell T (2003), Management: The New Competitive Landscape, Sixth Edition, McGraw Hill Companies Fitzpatrick J L, Sanders J R and Worthen B R, 2004, Program Evaluation: Alternative Approaches and Practical Guidelines, Third Edition, Allyn and Bacon, Pearson Education, Inc. Langbein, L I and Felbinger, C L, 2006, Public program evaluation: a statistical guide, Illustrated edition, M.E. Sharpe Meisenheimer C G, 1997, Improving quality: a guide to effective programs, Illustrated second edition, Jones & Bartlett Learning Posavac, E J and Carey, R G, 2007, Program Evaluation: Methods and Case Studies, Seventh Edition, Prentice Hall, Pearson Education Inc Royse, D, Thyer, D.A and Padgett, B.K, 2009, Program Evaluation: An Introduction, Fifth Edition, Cengage Learning Read More