Product Overview
Addressing one of the most important and contentious issues challenging applied research and evaluation practice today what constitutes credible and actionable evidence this volume offers a balanced and current context in which to analyze the long debated quantitative qualitative paradigms In the Second Edition the contributors a veritable who s who in evaluation discuss the diversity and changing nature of credible and actionable evidence offer authoritative guidance about using credible and actionable evidence explain how to use it to provide rigorous and influential evaluations and include lessons from their own applied research and evaluation to suggest ways to address the key issues and challenges Reflecting the latest developments in the field and covering both experimental and non experimental methods the new edition includes revised and updated chapters summaries of strengths and weaknesses across varied approaches and contains diverse definitions of evidence Also included are two new chapters on assessing credibility and synthesizing evidence for policy makers This is a valuable resource for students and others interested in how to best study and evaluate programs policies organizations and other initiatives designed to improve aspects of the human condition and societal well being Placing into perspective the meaning of evidence for evaluation professionals and applied researchers the contributors to this book a veritable who s who in evaluation provide observations about the diversity and changing nature of credible evidence The editors include lessons from their own applied research and evaluation and suggest ways in which practitioners might address the key issues and challenges of collecting credible evidence The Second Edition offers updated thoughts on each chapter s topic as well as two new chapters that address assessing credibility and implications on policy analysis The Second Edition covers experimental and nonex
