Monthly Archives: August 2010

How much evidence is needed for policy?

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Patricia Rogers

In the last few days before the Australian federal election, a curious $5million advertising campaign has been launched which claims to be advocating evidence-based policy but does nothing of the kind.
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Posted in Appropriate inference, Appropriate measurement, Business & industry, Causal inference, Government programs, Health | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Managing genuine evaluation paradoxes: Genuine reporting

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Jane Davidson

In reponse to the earlier post on genuine evaluation snippets from around the globe, Irene Guijt raised a very important question about the tensions between several hallmarks of genuine evaluation: Some important contrasts presented but also one that doesn’t entirely … Continue reading →

Posted in About/Definition, Appropriate reporting, Government programs | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Friday Funny: The evaluation of art

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Patricia Rogers & Jane Davidson

Michael Scriven has long pointed out the fundamental difference between genuine professional evaluators and connoisseurs (see Evaluation Thesaurus 4th ed., pp. 91, 163, 329). He frequently cites wine tasting and art criticism as examples of the latter. There’s nothing like … Continue reading →

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Evaluation and complexity

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Patricia Rogers

I’ve recently been running workshops on purposeful program theory in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. It’s been a great treat to explore with so many different people how we might develop, represent and use program theory for policies … Continue reading →

Posted in Appropriate reporting, Evaluative questions & answers | Tagged | 1 Comment

“Genuine evaluation” snippets from across the globe

Posted on August 11, 2010 by Jane Davidson

What does the term “genuine evaluation” mean to the rest of the planet, including those who don’t identify as “evaluators”? We’ve collated a few snippets from our Google Alerts file to give a picture that is sometimes humorous, sometimes actually … Continue reading →

Posted in About/Definition | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments