Mgmt of Program Evaluation

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

The course objective is to develop students’ abilities in the crucial executive functions of managing the evaluation of policy programs. Although there will be significant devotion to academic consideration, the course is designed to focus principally on the executive practitioner—less so on the scholar. For example, although there will be serious treatment of statistical concepts, the successful student will not become a statistician; he or she will become comfortable and confident with the most important professional usages of statistics. Perhaps more importantly, the course will attempt to “inoculate” the student from inappropriate use—intentional or otherwise—of quantitative techniques. This graduate level class will stress (1) conceptualization, (2) design methodology (qualitative as well as quantitative), (3) conduct (collection of evidence) and oversight of the evaluation process, (4) critical analysis, including a focus on oft-underestimated implementation issues, and (5) interpretation and apolitical communication of findings. MPM ONLY