Democratic Evaluation Approaches for Equity and Inclusion

Katherine Ryan, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois, describes three approaches to democratic evaluation and argues that they can provide field-tested methods for addressing equity and inclusion issues in evaluations of programs for children, youth, and families.

Katharine E. Ryan (Fall 2005) Evaluation Exchange Article

Getting Creative in Holding Officials Accountable

Dennis Arroyo describes the performance-monitoring mechanisms that nongovernment agencies use to make public officials accountable to citizens.

Dennis Arroyo (Fall 2005) Evaluation Exchange Article

The Many Forms of Democratic Evaluation

Ernest House, Emeritus Professor at the University of Colorado, argues that democratic evaluation calls for more ingenuity than other forms of evaluation and that as a result its methods can take many forms.

Earnest House (Fall 2005) Evaluation Exchange Article

Combining Research Rigor and Participatory Evaluation

Anju Malhotra and Sanyukta Mathur from the International Center for Research on Women describe a study in Nepal that compared participatory and more traditional approaches to evaluating adolescent reproductive health interventions.

Anju Malhotra , Sanyukta Mathur (Fall 2005) Evaluation Exchange Article

Twists and Turns in the Journey: Youth Activists' Use of Research in Their Campaigns for Small Schools

Kristine Lewis shares Research for Action's experience with training youth to use social science research methods in their campaigns to im-prove their local high schools.

Kristine Lewis (Fall 2005) Evaluation Exchange Article

Democratic Evaluation in Practice

Cheryl MacNeil, an evaluation consultant, describes the asymmetries of power in evaluation and her efforts to make her evaluation practice more democratic.

Cheryl MacNeil, Ph.D. (Fall 2005) Evaluation Exchange Article

Social Capital in the Connected Society

Andrew Nachison, director of the Media Center, an organization that studies the intersection of media, technology, and society, writes about social capital and democratic processes in a digital society.

Andrew Nachison (Fall 2005) Evaluation Exchange Article

The Trenton Central High School Obesity Prevention Project: Encouraging Democracy Through Inclusion

Katrina Bledsoe of the College of New Jersey writes about the inclusion of student voices in the evaluation of an obesity prevention program

Katrina L. Bledsoe, Ph.D. (Fall 2005) Evaluation Exchange Article

Democratic Evaluation

This issue of The Evaluation Exchange periodical focuses on democratic evaluation. At the forefront of the discussion are equity and inclusion in the evaluation of programs for children, families, and communities, as well as evaluation to promote public accountability and transparency. Katherine Ryan leads off the issue by presenting major theoretical approaches to democratic evaluation. Several contributors examine these different strands, highlighting the importance of power sharing. Jennifer Greene emphasizes the importance of broad inclusion of stakeholder perspectives in evaluations, while Saville Kushner offers guidelines for people and communities to help evaluation reposition itself as a collaborative effort and thereby begin to address the crisis in public trust between the professional bureaucracy and citizens. Kathleen McCartney and Heather Weiss focus on public accountability, especially the conduct of flagship evaluations to maintain their scientific integrity while also serving the public good. Several contributors provide practical methods and tools to promote democratic evaluation, including the facilitation of dialogue, the training of youth researchers, the use of photovoice and cell phone technology, and access to interactive information through the Internet.

Evaluation Exchange Issue

After School Evaluation Symposium

This 2-day meeting brought together the perspectives of diverse stakeholders to inspire new ideas and foster stronger links between research, practice, and policy. Participants discussed issues of access, quality, professional development, the role of evaluation research, and systems-building efforts.

Harvard Family Research Project (September 22, 2005) Conferences and Presentations

Free. Available online only.

The Evidence Base for Increasing High-Achieving Minority Undergraduates

Mehmet Öztürk discusses findings from a review of evaluations of programs at selective colleges and universities to be used for improving undergraduate academic outcomes for underrepresented minority or disadvantaged students.

Mehmet (Summer 2005) Evaluation Exchange Article

Building a Pipeline Program for Evaluators of Color

Rodney Hopson and Prisca Collins of Duquesne University describe a new graduate internship program designed to develop leaders in the evaluation field and improve evaluators' capacity to work responsively in diverse racial and ethnic communities.

Rodney Hopson , Prisca Collins (Summer 2005) Evaluation Exchange Article

The Retrospective Pretest: An Imperfect but Useful Tool

Theodore Lamb, of the Center for Research and Evaluation at Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, discusses retrospective pretests and their strengths and weaknesses.

Theodore Lamb (Summer 2005) Evaluation Exchange Article