Practical Program Evaluation

Huey T. Chen has been a Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham since 2002.  He was born and raised in Taiwan.  Dr. Chen worked at the University of Akron until 1997, when he joined the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the chief of an evaluation branch. Dr. Chen had taken a leadership role in designing and implementing a national evaluation system for assessing the CDC funded HIV prevention programs, which are based in health departments and community organizations.  Dr. Chen has contributed to the development of evaluation theory and methodology, especially in the areas of program theory and theory-driven evaluations. His book, Theory-Driven Evaluations, has been recognized as one of the landmarks in program evaluation.  In 1998 he received the Senior Biomedical Research Service Award from the CDC. He is also the 1993 recipient of the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award for contributions to Evaluation Theory from the American Evaluation Association.

• PREFACESPECIAL FEATURES OF THE BOOKABOUT THE AUTHORPART I: INTRODUCTION1. Fundamentals for Program Evaluation2. Understand Approaches to Evaluation and Select Ones That Work: The Comprehensive Evaluation Typology3. Logic Models and the Action Model/Change Model Schema (Program Theory)PART II: PROGRAM EVALUATION TO HELP STAKEHOLDERS DEVELOP A PROGRAM PLAN4. Helping Stakeholders Clarify a Program Plan: Program Scope5. Helping Stakeholders Clarify a Program Plan: Action PlanPART III: EVALUATING IMPLEMENTATION6. Constructive Process Evaluation Tailored for the Initial Implementation7. Assessing Implementation in the Mature Implementation StagePART IV: PROGRAM MONITORING AND OUTCOME EVALUATION8. Program Monitoring and the Development of a Monitoring System9. Constructive Outcome Evaluations10. The Experimentation Evaluation Approach to Outcome Evaluation11. The Holistic Effectuality Evaluation Approach to Outcome Evaluation12. The Theory-Driven Approach to Outcome EvaluationPART V: ADVANCED ISSUES IN PROGRAM EVALUATION13. What to Do if Your Logic Model Does Not Work as Well as Expected14. Formal Theories Versus Stakeholder Theories in Interventions: Relative Strengths and Limitations15. Evaluation and Dissemination: Top-Down Approach Versus Bottom-Up ApproachReferencesIndex

"The strength of this text is its coverage of practical concerns for consideration by practitioners who are envisioning, planning, and executing program evaluations."