This reissued book is one of the key works that influenced and shaped the contemporary evaluation field. The book developed a new, expanded conception of the validity of evaluation studies, based on broad criteria of truth, beauty, and justice. It also presented a widely-used typology of evaluation approaches and critiqued these approaches with the validity criteria. Its long term influence is demonstrated by the book, (published in 1980) and criteria being prominently featured in the overall theme for the forthcoming American Evaluation Association’s annual conference in November, 2010.
Values in Evaluation is a breakthrough book that will change the way evaluators think about the relationship between facts and values. Using the tools of philosophy and insights from evaluation practice, the authors attack the inconsistencies in current thinking about the interplay of facts and values and give us an outline for reconstructing the approach to values within evaluation." --Gary T. Henry, Georgia State University "This book, as the title promises, unfurls the concept of value in the practice of program evaluation. The editors go well beyond recognizing that all data gathering and description are value laden and that all evaluators have value commitments shaping their designs. They examine the ethical and political burdens accompanying any evaluation contract. Out of an extended collaboration, Kenneth R. Howe and Ernest R. House together redirect their advocacy toward the pursuit of democracy." --Robert E. Stake, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign The authors use the tools of philosophy and the insights from evaluation practice to cut through current confusion about values and the interplay of facts and values. Four views of facts and values in evaluation are analyzed: those rooted in a fact-value dichotomy and those of radical constructivists, postmodernists, and deliberative democrats. The arguments are tough, the prose concise, and the insights compelling.
In this book, Ernie House reframes how we think about evaluation by reconsidering three key concepts of values, biases, and practical wisdom. The first part of the book reconstructs core evaluation concepts, with a focus on the origins of our values and biases. The second part explores how we handle values and biases in practice, and the third shows how we learn practical wisdom and use it in evaluations. Value is the central concept in this volume, yet it’s a fuzzy concept. In Part I, Ernie clarifies the concept of value by addressing basic questions: What are values? Where do they come from? Why do we have them? Why is our conception so confused? How do we handle values in evaluations? In Part II, another central concept is added, that of biases. Prominent evaluation frameworks have focused on biases, including Campbell and Stanley’s (1963) framework for validating causal inferences and Scriven’s (1972) conception of objectivity, which is achieved by correcting for biases in general. In addition, research on thought processes has made progress by focusing on cognitive biases (Kahneman, 2011). Even so, through a case example, Ernie demonstrates that the concept of biases is under-appreciated and not well engaged in evaluation practice. The third important concept, featured in Part III, is practical wisdom, which is the knowledge that evaluators acquire through experience. Practical wisdom informs what we do, possibly as much as theory. Experienced evaluators often conduct evaluations in similar ways, regardless of their theory, because practical wisdom determines much of what they do. Ernie provides concrete examples of practical wisdom and how we employ it. Throughout the book, he draws on the empirical research on thinking processes, especially Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow (2011). This book will be of interest and relevance to all evaluation scholars and practitioners, as it thoughtfully engages core constructs of the field. The book can also well serve as a supplementary text in multiple evaluation courses, as it offers valuable conceptual and practical perspectives on our craft.
Debunking the myth that economic productivity should shape educational policy and practice. The author illustrates that the attempts by the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations to reshape the school to make "productive workers" ignore how schools work and how students learn, and in the end is doomed to failure.
Evaluation politics is one of the most critical, yet least understood aspects of evaluation. To succeed, evaluators must grasp the politics of their situation, lest their work be derailed. This engrossing novel illuminates the politics and ethics of evaluation, even as it entertains. Paul Reeder, an experienced (and all too human) evaluator, must unravel political, ethical, and technical puzzles in a mysterious world he does not fully comprehend. The book captures the complexities of evaluation politics in ways other works do not. Written expressly for learning and teaching, the evaluation novel is an unconventional foray into vital topics rarely explored.
On January 15, 1975, the Reverend Jesse Jackson was leading a demonstration around the White House to protest the lack of jobs for black youths. As the demonstrators marched, Jackson was shocked to discover that many of the black youths marching with him were drunk or on drugs, many of them ""out of control."" Abruptly, he called a halt to the demonstration and sent the marchers home. Within a few months, Jackson launched a national campaign in the urban high schools of the nation to save the black youths of his country, to get them off drugs and motivate them to work hard, study in school, develop self-discipline, and become successful in American society. A program called PUSH for Excellence, or PUSH/Excel, was an outgrowth of his Operation PUSH organization. Society had no solutions for the black teenagers whom Jackson was trying to help, and his efforts were highly praised, at first, by the media and government officials.
In 1976, the federal government spent over $10 billion on civilian research, development, and demonstration projects. The vast majority of these dollars were spent for applied research-research from which it is reasonable to expect a payoff in implementation, commercialization, or problem solving. In all too many cases, that payoff has not been for
First published in 2004. Measuring the outcomes of educational practices is a modern phenomenon. Valuing their worth is as old as philosophy itself. It is the singular value of this collection of papers set in context and introduced by Ernest House that it holds in dynamic equilibrium both the measurement and the valuing sides of educational evaluation. This book will appeal to the student who will find the theoretical analysis of educational evaluation in its several meanings, suggested practices and also the specialist will also find much, not least a critical and challenging appreciation of educational evaluation theory and practice as it faces the problems of the final decades of the twentieth century.
A Coal Miner's Family at Mooseheart describes the lives of Homer Rhodes' widow and children at Mooseheart, IL, from 1919-1939. An orphan's home-school, which still operates, Mooseheart is arguably one of the most unusual child care programs of the 20th Century. This story begins with my family's arrival at Mooseheart and my rough introduction to the boys' codes of behavior. I report on how a Demerit system was replaced by a Merit system that worked well for 1,300 students living in this community which absolutely prohibited corporal punishment. Also I explain our daily routines. Further sections illustrate how the Founder's idealistic vision worked for our family and the students we knew: 1) how Blanche and her family adopt Earl and Carolyn Guinn, who lost both parents, 2) how students play and compete as the Mooseheart Spirit emerges, 3) how they can work to earn and spend their own money, 4) how they must learn a skilled trade, 5) how they may get a high school diploma --if they can pass the courses, 6) how they worship in the faith of their parents, 7) how they dance and romance, 8) how they dream, strive, become lonesome, suffer growing pains, 9) how they become ambitious, develop enough courage to leave Mooseheart to scatter and settle; 10) And finally, how they return to their very special utopia and wonder whether they can ever repay the Moose. Since this is a family memoir, I attach sections about our life before Mooseheart. I record what we know about our parents, Blanche Porter and, Homer Rhodes, and about Carrie Thomas, our mother's birth mother. I attach also a section about Spruce Knob, WV, and the Elk Lick Coal Company when Homer Rhodes was Superintendent of the mine there from 1919 until he died in 1925.
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