Читать книгу Evaluation in Today’s World - Veronica G. Thomas - Страница 144

In 1967, the first full-scale description of the application of research methods to evaluation was published in a text, Evaluative Research: Principles and Practices in Public Service and Social Action Programs, by Edward Suchman. In the introductory chapter of his book, Suchman says that

the growing demand for evaluation constitutes the rationale for this report [book]. Unfortunately, the theory and method of evaluative research have lagged far behind the development of the scientific method…. Today, as modern man [sic] turns more and more to basic research for his answers to practical problems, a great need exists for the methodological development of evaluative research as a reliable and valid means of testing the degree to which scientific knowledge is being successful put to practical use. (p. 6)

Other notable texts published in the 1970s include Carol H. Weiss’s Evaluation Research: Methods for Assessing Program Effectiveness (initially published in 1972); Elmer L. Struening and Marcia Guttentag’s Handbook of Evaluation Research (initially published in 1975); Peter H. Rossi and Howard E. Freeman’s Evaluation: A Systematic Approach (initially published in 1979); and Michael Q. Patton’s Utilization-Focused Evaluation (initially published in 1978). These texts are currently still in use, and some have been revised numerous times such as Evaluation: A Systematic Approach, now in its eighth edition (Rossi, Lipsey, & Henry, 2019). Additionally, during the 1970s–1980s, various journals dedicated to program evaluation were launched. Evaluation Review, published in 1977 by SAGE, became the first journal designed to advance the practice of evaluation and to publish the results of high-quality evaluations. By the end of the 1990s, there were numerous journals dedicated to scholarship-related evaluation theory, methods, practice, and research (see supplemental resources at the end of the chapter).