Gary T. Henry - Böcker

"This is one of the most coherent and comprehensive theories ofevaluation yet formulated and one that makes a most valuablecontribution. The authors are pioneering in important newdirections."--Ernest R. House, author of Professional Evaluation and Evaluatingwith Validity "This book is the best I've ever read detailing a practical theoryof evaluation. It is comprehensive, beautifully written, and makessense of the evaluation enterprise. It does so by emphasizing themajor function of evaluation as sense-making about policies andprograms."--Thomas D. Cook, professor, sociology, psychology, education, andpublic policy, Northwestern University Programs that serve the needs of the public continually facechanges brought by social, political, and economic forces. Tosurvive these changes, organizations must evaluate their programswisely and realistically. This book offers a new approach toevaluation, one that will encourage all kinds of organizations andagencies to improve their contributions to social betterment. Theauthors draw from three decades of evaluation practice and theoryto present their own framework for conceptualizing evaluation andfor pragmatically assessing social policies and programs. They analyze four purposes of evaluation: * To review the merit of programs and their value to society* To improve the organization and its services* To ensure program compliance with mandates* To build knowledge and expertise for future programs For the practitioner, these purposes help define the approach andmethods for an evaluation. The authors also enrich their discussionwith four possible modes of inquiry: description, classification,causal analysis, and values inquiry. Filled with tables, charts,and figures, this resource invites organizations to make the mostappropriate programming decisions based on thoughtful andsystematic methods. Evaluation: An Integrated Framework forUnderstanding, Guiding, and Improving Policies and Programs is atool that scholars can use to rejuvenate their view of evaluationand that practitioners can use to integrate the best techniqueswith a contemporary understanding of social policy and change.

Sampling is fundamental to nearly every study in the social and policy sciences, yet clear, concise guidance for practitioners and graduate students has been difficult to find. Practical Sampling provides guidance for researchers dealing with the everyday problems of sampling. Using the practical design approach Henry integrates sampling into the overall research design and explains the interrelationships between research design and sampling choices. He lays out alternatives and implications of the choices using four detailed examples to illustrate the alternatives selected and the trade-offs made by applied researchers.

The author uses a narrative, conceptual approach throughout the book; mathematical presentations are limited to necessary formulas; and calculations are kept to the absolute minimum, making it an easily approachable book for any researcher, student or professional across the social sciences.

Gary Henry has provided an excellent little book which discusses not only the basic 'techniques for display and analysis' which are available, but offers some very timely hints for their effective use. His audience is the 'applied researcher'. . . anybody engaged in empirical research at all. . . . He does. . . provide empirically grounded and valuable advice throughout on how best to design effective, accurate and reliable displays. . . . he provides a theoretical framework to guide the design of competent graphical displays. . . . Graphing Data. . . is well worth a good read. --Randy Banks in ESRC Data Archive Bulletin "Graphing Data is an accurate and factual presentation of effective techniques for graphically displaying quantitative data. The ideas postulated within the book represent effective techniques for graphing quantitative data and are consistent with the ideas of contemporary authors about the visual display of quantitative information. Graphing Data provides guidelines for researchers with desktop publishing capability who desire to incorporate graphs displaying quantitative data into research and evaluation reports. . . . The book is worthy of consideration as a course text for the introduction to graphing data or as a supplementary text for an introductory course on statistics where communicating research results are discussed. . . . Graphing Data serves as a legitimate reference for selecting appropriate data displays depending on the type of data and the purpose of data. . . . I would recommend this book for researchers and scholars interested in the effective communication of quantitative data to broad audiences." --Robert C. Branch in a prepublication review for Evaluation and Program Planning How can applied researchers present and analyze their research data more effectively? By using the techniques described in this volume, social scientists will be able to make their data more accessible to nontechnical audiences. This book is packed with examples that illustrate the characteristics of effective graphical displays of data and provides solid techniques for producing graphs. Graphing Data begins with a discussion of what has been learned from the visual perception research that relates to graphing data. It then explores the analysis tasks that apply most often: the use of graphs for data summarization, the display of multiple units, ways to improve tabular displays, graphical alternatives to tables, two-variable scatterplots as graphical support for correlation and regression, how to show variation and summary statistics together, and how to create more effective legends and titles on graphical displays.

Gary Henry has provided an excellent little book which discusses not only the basic 'techniques for display and analysis' which are available, but offers some very timely hints for their effective use. His audience is the 'applied researcher'. . . anybody engaged in empirical research at all. . . . He does. . . provide empirically grounded and valuable advice throughout on how best to design effective, accurate and reliable displays. . . . he provides a theoretical framework to guide the design of competent graphical displays. . . . Graphing Data. . . is well worth a good read. --Randy Banks in ESRC Data Archive Bulletin "Graphing Data is an accurate and factual presentation of effective techniques for graphically displaying quantitative data. The ideas postulated within the book represent effective techniques for graphing quantitative data and are consistent with the ideas of contemporary authors about the visual display of quantitative information. Graphing Data provides guidelines for researchers with desktop publishing capability who desire to incorporate graphs displaying quantitative data into research and evaluation reports. . . . The book is worthy of consideration as a course text for the introduction to graphing data or as a supplementary text for an introductory course on statistics where communicating research results are discussed. . . . Graphing Data serves as a legitimate reference for selecting appropriate data displays depending on the type of data and the purpose of data. . . . I would recommend this book for researchers and scholars interested in the effective communication of quantitative data to broad audiences." --Robert C. Branch in a prepublication review for Evaluation and Program Planning How can applied researchers present and analyze their research data more effectively? By using the techniques described in this volume, social scientists will be able to make their data more accessible to nontechnical audiences. This book is packed with examples that illustrate the characteristics of effective graphical displays of data and provides solid techniques for producing graphs. Graphing Data begins with a discussion of what has been learned from the visual perception research that relates to graphing data. It then explores the analysis tasks that apply most often: the use of graphs for data summarization, the display of multiple units, ways to improve tabular displays, graphical alternatives to tables, two-variable scatterplots as graphical support for correlation and regression, how to show variation and summary statistics together, and how to create more effective legends and titles on graphical displays.