Standards-Based and Responsive Evaluation

The book begins with the main strategic choices an evaluator needs to make between quantitatively,by explicating criteria, needs, standards, and performances, or qualitatively, by studying the activity, aspirations, problems, and accomplishments of the participants and critical observers. After reading the text, students will have a better appreciation of evaluation as a process that needs to be custom-fit to the situation. Throughout the book, Stake presents evaluation as a series of choices for the - To remain independent or to join with program staff or stakeholders
- To value personal experience as evidence or to shun it as biased
- To aid development formatively or to assess the existing program summatively
- To use issues, goals, gains, efficiency, or problem solving as the key conceptual structure
- To invest small or large in trying out and validating data-gathering procedures
- To support the standards and ethical codes of professional associations