Evaluating Training Programs : The Four Levels

An updated edition of the bestselling classic.

Donald Kirkpatrick is a true legend in the training field: He is a past president of ASTD, a member of Training magazine's HRD Hall of Fame, and the recipient of the 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award in Workplace Learning and Performance from ASTD.

In 1959, Donald Kirkpatrick developed a four-level model for evaluating training programs. Since then, the "Kirkpatrick Model" has become the most widely used approach to training evaluation in the corporate, government, and academic worlds.

Evaluating Training Programs provided the first comprehensive guide to Kirkpatrick's four-level model, along with detailed case studies of how the model is being used successfully in a wide range of programs and institutions. This new edition includes revisions and updates of the existing material plus new case studies that show the four-level model in action.

Going beyond just using simple reaction questionnaires to rate training programs, Kirkpatrick's model focuses on four areas for a more comprehensive approach to evaluation: evaluating reaction, evaluating learning, evaluating behavior, and evaluating results.

Evaluating Training Programs is a how-to book designed for practitioners in the training field who plan, implement, and evaluate training programs. The author supplements principles and guidelines with numerous sample survey forms for each step of the process. For those who have planned and conducted many programs, as well as those who are new to the training and development field, this book is a handy reference guide that provides a practical and proven model for increasing training effectiveness through evaluation.

In the third edition of this classic bestseller, Kirkpatrick offers new forms and procedures for evaluating at all levels and several additional chapters about using balanced scorecards and managing change effectively. He also includes twelve new case studies from organizations that have been evaluated using one or more of the four levels—Caterpillar, Defense Acquisition University, Microsoft, IBM, Toyota, Nextel, The Regence Group, Denison University, and Pollack Learning Alliance.

Donald L. Kirkpatrick is Professor Emeritus of the University of Wisconsin and a widely respected teacher, author, and consultant. He has over thirty years’ experience as Professor of Management at the University of Wisconsin and has held professional training and human resource positions with International Minerals and Chemical Corporation and Bendix Corporation.

James D. Kirkpatrick has worked in the field of organizational development for over fifteen years. He works for Corporate University Enterprise, Inc., as its Senior Consultant for Evaluation Services, where his main responsibility is the delivery of the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Certification Program to organizations and individuals. Prior to his new position, from 1997 to 2004, Jim was the Director of the Corporate University for First Indiana Bank in Indianapolis, where he was responsible for the bank’s Balanced Scorecard Management System, Leadership Development, Training, and the Career Development Program.