Utilization-focused evaluation : the new century text / author, Michael Quinn Patton.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Toward more useful evaluations. Evaluation use : both challenge and mandate -- What is utilization-focused evaluation? How do you get started? -- Fostering intended use by intended users : the personal factor -- Intended uses of findings -- Intended process uses : impacts of evaluation, thinking and experiences -- Focusing evaluations : choices, options and decisions. Being active-reactive-adaptive : evaluator roles, situational responsiveness, and strategic, contingency thinking -- Beyond the goals. Clarification game : focusing on outcomes -- Focusing an evaluation : alternatives to goals-based evaluation -- Implementation evaluation. What happened in the program? -- The program's theory of action : conceptualizing casual linkages -- Appropriate methods. Evaluations worth using : utilization-focused, methods decisions -- The paradigms debate and a utilitarian synthesis -- The meanings of evaluation data : analysis, interpretation, judgment, and reporting -- Realities and practicalities of utilization-focused evaluation. Power, politics, and ethics -- Utilization-focused evaluation : process and premises.