Effectiveness vs. Efficiency
Measuring the number of outputs per dollar spent, this criterion is often used in evaluating public programs.
What is productivity?
This key process in evaluation determines the merit, worth, or quality of a public intervention.
What is Appraisal?
In this approach, evaluators adopt the values of others as criteria and standards without advocating for any particular value.
What is descriptive valuing?
This approach evaluates programs based on their stated goals, from national policy objectives to local municipal goals.
What is goal-attainment evaluation?
One major challenge of goal-attainment evaluation is that these unintended effects are often overlooked.
What are unforeseen side effects?
This economic evaluation method compares the monetized value of program effects to its costs.
What is cost-benefit analysis?
A fundamental challenge in evaluation is ensuring that this characteristic of performance measures, referring to their accuracy in reflecting what they intend to measure, is upheld.
What is Validity?
When a policy cannot be implemented as designed due to poor structure, staffing issues, or lack of participation, it is classified as this type of failure.
What is program failure?
This evaluation method ignores predetermined goals and instead assesses actual program implementation and outcomes.
What is goal-free evaluation?
In democracies, evaluators often prioritize this type of valuing because it aligns with pluralistic interests.
What is descriptive valuing?
This term describes the degree to which a program achieves its intended outcomes, without considering costs.
What is effectiveness?
This branch of evaluation provides a more rigorous methodology for determining cause-and-effect relationships.
What is Program Evaluation?
This type of valuing requires evaluators to take a stand on values such as justice and equality.
What is prescriptive valuing?
These criteria, often used in effectiveness evaluation, include stakeholder expectations, professional standards, and client needs.
What are descriptive criteria of merit?
This phenomenon occurs when organizations focus more on hitting performance targets rather than achieving their actual goals.
What is goal displacement?
This measure focuses on program outputs rather than ultimate results, assessing the volume of work performed.
What are output measures?
This system tracks key measures of program or agency performance over time to improve decision-making.
What is performance measurement?
This type of evaluation relies on qualitative approaches such as case studies and participant observations.
What is historical or qualitative evaluation?
This phase of evaluation records key variable changes after policy implementation to assess performance.
What is policy monitoring?
A common issue in performance measurement, this occurs when measures fail to capture relevant outcomes due to missing cases or reporting errors.
What is nonresponse bias?
This evaluation approach seeks to achieve a program’s objectives using the least amount of resources.
What is cost-effectiveness analysis?
This evaluation method helps determine the merit of previous policy evaluations to incorporate findings into future ex-ante analysis.
What is meta-evaluation?
This type of failure occurs when a program is implemented correctly but does not produce the intended effects.
What is theory failure?
This step in policy analysis ensures that implemented policies remain faithful to their original design and do not change haphazardly.
What is policy maintenance?
This ethical concern arises when evaluators manipulate results or selectively report findings to align with stakeholders' interests
What is bias in evaluation?