Principles-Focused Evaluation: The Guide

In the past two decades, Patton has been perhaps the most creative contemporary thinker about how best to advance evaluation practice, with contributions including utilization-focused evaluation, qualitative evaluation methods, process use, complexity concepts, systems change in evaluation, and developmental evaluation, among others. Principles-Focused Evaluation continues Patton's impressive tradition of major breakthrough innovation. This book will undoubtedly expand your thinking and is a 'must read' for evaluation practitioners, scholars, and students. I give it my absolute highest endorsement. --Stewart I. Donaldson, PhD, Director, Claremont Evaluation Center, Claremont Graduate University

Patton is one of our most innovative evaluation theorists--and this book underscores that point. P-FE provides the framework for implementing evaluations that are grounded in meaningful, actionable, and rigorous evidence. The book offers guidance on theory and practice plus examples that bring the concepts to life. No one else engages readers quite like Patton. Another exceptional contribution by a master! --Christina A. Christie, PhD, Chair, Department of Education, University of California, Los Angeles

Principles-Focused Evaluation provides a practical toolkit for guiding and shaping the urgent work of shifting institutions, systems, and cultures from maladaptive to adaptive states. Patton builds on his foundational work in utilization-focused evaluation and developmental evaluation. This is a timely and important book for evaluators--and for the social innovators, policymakers, educators, and funders with whom they work. --Stephen Huddart, President and CEO, The J. W. McConnell Family Foundation, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Gender equity, empowerment, climate mitigation, poverty reduction, peacebuilding--these prevalent programmatic initiatives take many different forms but share principled foundations of action. In this book, Patton shifts the attention of evaluators to the fundamental propositions that drive change, offering a valuable approach for addressing the complexities of many--if not most--evaluation environments. --Ann M. Doucette, PhD, Research Professor, Claremont Graduate University; Director of Special Projects, The Evaluators' Institute

The practice exercises at the end of most chapters take the form of reflective, open-ended prompts that allow readers to work through the material presented in the chapter....Teachers may find these exercises useful for starting discussions, guiding group projects, and/or shaping written assignments, while consultants may use them to guide clients and their staffs through a process of reflection, articulation, and organizational self-appraisal....While Patton is a knowledgeable guide through the material, he also is a storyteller and creative non-fiction writer who understands the power of narrative....Woven throughout The GUIDE are bits and chunks and even whole chapters of story, often told by others in the field....Hearing these people share how P-FE worked in specific situations at specific times illustrates the extent to which P-FE can be applied. --The Qualitative Report