Program Evaluation in a Complex Organizational System: Lessons from Cooperative Extension: New Directions for Evaluation, Number 120 (J-B PE Single Issue (Program) Evaluation)

This issue of New Directions for Evaluation focuses on evaluation in complex organizations. The themes that are examined?the mainstreaming of evaluation within organizations, the growth of evaluation capacity, and the use of evaluation to promote organizational learning?are relevant for evaluators who operate in environments marked by multiple organizational levels, varied funding streams, divergent purposes for evaluative information, and numerous stakeholders and organizational partners.

The national Cooperative Extension System serves as a recurring case study that links the topics together. Cooperative Extension is a system of institutions that includes every state's land-grant universities, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local country governments. The linkages across professional communities and distinct institutions create a highly complex environment, presenting numerous challenges for evaluators working with community-based programs. Extension's experiences contribute to a rapidly evolving knowledge base about effective evaluation practice across a variety of organizational settings.

This is the 120th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly thematic journal New Directions for Evaluation, an official publication of the American Evaluation Association. The journal publishes empirical, methodological, and theoretical works on all aspects of evaluation. Each issue is devoted to a single topic, with contributions solicited, organized, reviewed, and edited by a guest editor or editors. Issues may take any of several forms, such as a series of related chapters, a debate, or a long article followed by brief critical commentaries.

Marc T. Braverman is the associate dean for extension and outreach in the College of Health and Human Sciences, program leader of the Extension Family and Community Development Program, and a professor of human development and family sciences at Oregon State University.

Molly Engle is associate professor and Extension Service evaluation specialist at Oregon State University, and is a former president of the American Evaluation Association.

Mary E. Arnold is an associate professor and 4-H youth development specialist with the Oregon State University Extension Service, whose work involves teaching and conducting evaluations with the Oregon 4_H program.

Roger A. Rennekamp is head of the Department of 4-H Youth Development Education at Oregon State University, and has also worked as a county Extension educator and state evaluation specialist.