Books in the J-B PE Single Issue (Program) Evaluation series

Strategy has emerged as a watchword of modern change efforts. Calls to be strategic are sounded in the private sector, government, philanthropy, and the not-for-profit sectors. Management experts stress the importance of strategic thinking. Change agents are urged to act strategically.

Performance measurement is a very timely topic in the public and nonprofit sectors of the United States and in many countries around the world. Executive and legislative initiatives have required public managers to identify performance measures, set performance targets, and report on their progress toward meeting performance goals.

This issue delivers concrete suggestions for optimally using data visualization in evaluation, as well as suggestions for best practices in data visualization design. It focuses on specific quantitative and qualitative data visualization approaches that include data dashboards, graphic recording, and geographic information systems (GIS).

Exploring the influence and application of Campbellian validity typology in the theory and practice of outcome evaluation, this volume addresses the strengths and weaknesses of this often controversial evaluation method and presents new perspectives for its use. Editors Huey T. Chen, Stewart I. Donaldson and Melvin M.

Multisite evaluation settings differ from the single settings common to research on evaluation use.

This volume of New Directions for Evaluation focuses on evaluation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs, with special emphasis on evaluation of STEM education initiatives.

This issue of New Directions for Evaluation (NDE) marks a milestone: the 25th anniversary of the American Evaluation Association (AEA).

Nowadays, a considerable amount of evaluation work is implemented internally both nationally and across the world.

This issue focuses on connections between performance management and evaluation, a contentious topic at the moment.

Because of the growing importance of evidence-based decision-making for improving programs and policies, this issue examines methods selection: Which is better? How can one be improved? Are the results of the project worth the resources expended? And, how that leads to confidence in value-based conclusions.

One of the most divisive issues in the evaluation community has been the debate over which methodologies are to be considered adequate or commendable in addressing different evaluation questions in different settings. One form of this debate involved opposing camps of proponents of qualitative versus quantitative methods.

Inspired by conversations among independent consultants at the annual conferences of the American Evaluation Association (AEA), this volume examines topics unique to independent consulting, representing day-to-day realities and challenges that span the consultant's career.

This volume explores the issues with which evaluators of nonformal education programs (such as parks, zoos, community outreach organizations, and museums) struggle. These issues are not unique to nonformal programs and settings.

Mixed methods in evaluation have the potential to enhance the credibility of evaluation and the outcomes of evaluation. This issue explores advances in understanding mixed methods in philosophical, theoretical, and methodological terms and presents specific illustrations of the application of these concepts in evaluation practice.

Advisory committees are used often in evaluation studies, yet this practice is little discussed or reported. This issue is the first full-length text devoted to the purpose, practice, and scholarship about this type of formal, structured advice.

This important issue of New Directions for Evaluation highlights social network analysis (SNA) methodology and its application within program evaluation. The application of SNA is relatively new for mainstream evaluation, and like most other innovations, it has yet to be fully explored in this field.