Suchergebnisse

AbstractIf there is little consensus about the assumptions underlying a program, theory‐based evaluators can collect data relevant to more than one theory, selecting for study the specific links in those theories that answer key questions.

Evaluation has much to offer to policy makers, but policy makers rarely base new policies directly on evaluation results. Partly this is because of the compedting pressures of interests, ideologies, other information and institutional constraints. Partly it is because many policies take shape over time through the actions of many officials in many offices, each of which does its job without conscious reflection. Despite the seeming neglect of evaluation, scholars in many countries have found that evaluation has real consequences: it challenges old ideas, provides new perspectives and helps to re-order the policy agenda. This kind of 'enlightenment' is difficult to see, and it works best when it receives support from policy champions. Many channels bring evaluation results to the attention of policy makers, and they listen not only because they want direction but also to justify policies, to show their knowledge and modernity, and as a counterweight to other information. Openness of the political system and a thriving evaluation community tend to make some nations more attuned to evaluation-than others.

Theory-based evaluation (TBE) explores the how and why of program success or failure. Advocates of TBE claim that it produces information unavailable in traditional process and outcome studies. This article examines six published papers of TBEs. It finds that the authors of the papers do not always make explicit the relation of their data to the theory of the program. Nevertheless, it was evident in one or more cases that TBE identified unnecessary program components, located intermediary changes, raised new questions, contributed to a paradigm shift, highlighted the difficulties of taking successful pilot programs to scale, and provided clarity and focus for the evaluation. Interestingly, in none of the studies was the original theory completely right. Lessons for the future of TBE are drawn.

Modern social sciences have been committed to the improvement of public policy. However, doubts have arisen about the possibility and desirability of a policy-oriented social science. In this book, leading specialists in the field analyse both the development and failings of policy-oriented social science. In contrast to other writings on the subject, this volume presents a distinctively historical and comparative approach. By looking at earlier periods, the contributors demonstrate how policy orientation has been central to the emergence and evolution of the social sciences as a form of professional activity. Case studies of rarely examined societies such as Poland, Brazil and Japan further demonstrate the various ways in which intellectual developments have been shaped by the societal contexts in which they have emerged and how they have taken part in the shaping of these societies

English
In contrast to the widespread local popularity of the police-led Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) school-based programme, evaluation studies have consistently questioned its sustained impact on adolescent drug use. Our focus in this article is on the role of state government in DARE policy. Semi-structured personal interviews were conducted with 30 people, including past or present state agency officials and external researchers. These cases are organised chronologically along three time periods: (1) the genesis and expansion of DARE; (2) the resiliency of the programme to negative evaluation evidence; and (3) the decline of DARE.