Program Evaluation and Performance Measurement integrates performance measurement into evaluation practice and shows how the skills that are essential for building program evaluation expertise are also important foundations for performance measurement. The importance of sound professional judgment is highlighted throughout the book and the final chapter offers ways that evaluation professionals can develop their professional judgment. The text discusses the realities of organizational politics and incentives for managers and evaluators. It balances the importance of good evaluation methods with the resource and organizational constraints that almost always affect the choices that evaluators make as they do their work.
The book does not assume a thorough understanding of research methods and design, instead guiding the reader through a systematic introduction to these topics. Nor does the book assume a knowledge of statistics, although there are some sections that do outline the role that statistics play in evaluations.
James C. McDavid (PhD, Indiana, 1975) is a professor of Public Administration at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. He is a specialist in program evaluation, performance measurement, and performance management. He has conducted extensive research and evaluations focusing on federal, state, provincial, and local governments in the United States and Canada. His published research has appeared in the
American Journal of Evaluation as well as the
Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation. He is currently a member of the editorial board of the
Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation. In 1993, Dr. McDavid won the University of Victoria Alumni Association Teaching Award. In 1996, he won the J. E. Hodgetts Award for the best English-language article published in Canadian Public Administration. From 1990 to 1996, he was Dean of the Faculty of Human and Social Development at the University of Victoria. In 2004, he was named a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Victoria and was also Acting Director of the School of Public Administration during that year. In addition to teaching online courses in the School of Public Administration Graduate Certificate in Evaluation Program, he is a member of the Evaluation Advisory Committee for the Canadian International Development Agency.
Laura R. L. Hawthorn holds a Master of Arts degree in Canadian history from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Victoria. After completing her MPA, she worked as a manager for several years in the British Columbia public service and non-profit sector before leaving to raise a family. She is currently living in Vancouver, working on her horse farm and being mom to her two small boys.
