Title: Simplistic Evaluation
Product review: Trying Hard is Not Good Enough is a great metaphor pertaining to evaluation and also is how I would judge this book. It's simplistic design will appeal to many social service administrators who need to be able to have data for their boards and funders, yet they still may never get to the theories behind the workings of the program and even if the program actually works as designed. This is just the decades old MBO (Management by Objective) for Human Services, and does not expand the science of evaluation. There are many better evaluation books out there that have expanded far beyond what Mr. Friedman posits as evaluation, which build on logic model frameworks and theory of change.RealWorld Evaluation: Working Under Budget, Time, Data, and Political ConstraintsEssentials of Utilization-Focused EvaluationPurposeful Program Theory: Effective Use of Theories of Change and Logic Models (Research Methods for the Social Sciences)
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