Research Methods for Evaluating Social Programs and Human Service Organizations

This course focuses on the theoretical and strategic issues in designing and implementing formative or summative evaluations. The scope will include methods of evaluation appropriate for the study of social programs, human service organizations, inter-organizational relationships; and similarities and differences from methods used for basic knowledge development. The analysis of alternative evaluation models, procedures, and techniques and issues in the design, implementation, and utilization of evaluation research will also be addressed. Topics may include: the sociopolitical context; ethical issues; the planning of evaluations; specification of variables, with emphasis on definitions of effectiveness and on operations of service technologies; the formulation of evaluation objectives; issues in sampling procedures, measurement, and data collection; alternative models for designing programmatic and organizational evaluations, including network analysis; analysis of findings; feedback at different stages of program evaluation; and reporting, dissemination, and utilization of results.