Evaluation Findings That Surprise (Paperback)

EDITOR'S NOTES (Richard J. Light).

1. Evaluating to Resolve Controversies (Richard J. Light).
Findings that question a common wisdom, particularly when based on compelling evaluation evidence, can be effective for changing public policy decisions. Concrete examples from different human service fields illustrate how this happens.

2. Evaluating Arrest for Intimate Partner Violence: Two Decades of Research and Reform (Rosemary Chalk, Joel H. Garner).
Even when policies for dealing with social problems are set in place, new evaluation findings can cumulatively lead to changes in those policies. The weight of new evidence can be great, especially when evaluation designs are strong.

3. The Effects of Privatization on Public Services: A Historical Evaluation Approach (Jennifer S. Light).
A substantial body of theory holds that privatizing public services will increase efficiency and save taxpayers money. Historical evaluation evidence actually demonstrates the reverse: privatizing often ends up resulting in greater demands for public services.

4. Preventing Perinatal Transmission of HIV: Target Programs, Not People (Michael A. Stoto).
Prevention programs are widely considered most effective when they are targeted to at-risk populations. This chapter illustrates how targeting to avoid a highly controversial health risk actually is less effective than interventions that are broadly diffused throughout society.

5. Waiting for Godot: Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in Education (Henry M. Levin).
Using specific examples from educational reform, this chapter illustrates how evaluators can benefit from using more compelling cost-effectiveness analyses in efforts to change public policies.

6. How Memories of School Experiences Can Enrich Educational Evaluations (David B. Pillemer).
Standardized testing offers some valuable evidence about students' performance. Enhancing those test data with evidence from narrative evaluations will allow teachers to improve their daily work in schools and ultimately accomplish the goal of improving student performance.

7. Large-Scale Professional Development for Schoolteachers: Cases from Pittsburgh, New York City, and the National School Reform Faculty (Edward Miech, Bill Nave, Frederick Mosteller).
Professional development for teachers in public schools is widely agreed to be desirable. This chapter suggests how evaluation evidence can help determine when efforts are succeeding.