Evaluation: A Systematic Approach

The Fifth Edition of this bestselling book has been thoughtfully revised to make it the most useful and comprehensive resource in evaluation research today. New to this edition is: more coverage on meta-analysis, particularly in regard to its use in design and modification of programme intervention; revised and expanded coverage on programme monitoring and management; new chapters on quasi-experimental impact assessments; assessment of full-coverage programmes including a comparison of the differences in these procedures; and more examples and boxed exhibits of local and state evaluations.

The effective organization of the Fourth Edition has been retained, mirroring the way evaluation is practised - from diagnosis of a problem with a social programme through to the final stages of measuring and analyzing a specific programme.

Mark W. Lipsey is the Director of the Center for Evaluation Research and Methodology, and a Senior Research Associate, at the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies (Ph.D. in Psychology from The Johns Hopkins University in 1972). His professional interests are in the areas of public policy, program evaluation research, social intervention, field research methodology, and research synthesis (meta-analysis).  The topics of his recent research have been risk and intervention for juvenile delinquency and substance use, early childhood education programs, and issues of methodological quality in program evaluation research. Professor Lipsey serves on the editorial boards of Evaluation and Program Planning, Psychological Bulletin, the Journal of Experimental Criminology, and the American Journal of Community Psychology, and boards or committees of, among others, the National Research Council, the Department of Education What Works Clearinghouse, Campbell Collaboration, and Blueprints for Violence Prevention. He is a recipient of the American Evaluation Association’s Paul Lazarsfeld Award, the Society of Prevention Research’s Nan Tobler Award, a Fellow of the American Psychological Society, and co-author of the program evaluation textbook, Evaluation: A Systematic Approach and the meta-analysis primer, Practical Meta-Analysis.