jamorell

May 5, 2012May 13, 2019 jamorell Program Sustainability, Replication and Scale-up

Are principles of population ecology useful in understanding sustainability as evaluators use the term?

October 20, 2011May 13, 2019 jamorell Program Theory and Program Logic

Preparation for AEA workshop: Logic Models – Beyond the Traditional View: Metrics, Methods, Expected and Unexpected Change

Place for participants to state preferences about workshop content, to let others offer an opinion about content for a workshop like this, and for participants to get to know each other.

September 19, 2011May 13, 2019 jamorell Evaluation as a Discipline and a Profession

Ideology in evaluation. Help designing devising a scenario for AEA 2011

We have been musing about whether evaluation as practiced by the members of AEA is framed within too narrow range of political and social ideologies.

April 21, 2011May 13, 2019 jamorell Program Theory and Program Logic

Evaluating the relationship between development and democracy. Comments sought on draft of a presentation

March 20, 2011May 13, 2019 jamorell Program Sustainability, Replication and Scale-up

Is it useful to think of “fidelity” in terms of “attractors?”

I have been toying with an idea about thinking of "fidelity" in terms of "attractors" as they are cast in complex adaptive systems (CAS).

March 12, 2011May 13, 2019 jamorell Evaluation as a Discipline and a Profession, Unintended consequences

Surprise in Evaluation: Values and Valuing as Expressed in Political Ideology, Program Theory, Metrics, and Methodology (AEA 2011 – Think Tank Proposal)

Submitted by Jonny Morell Joanne Farley Tarek Azzam Abstract: How does political ideology affect program theories, methodologies, and metrics? Participants will be randomly assigned to groups, and asked to sketch an evaluation based on one of three positions. 1) Government has an obligation to alleviate social inequities and thereby promote the public good. 2) Government’s … Continue reading Surprise in Evaluation: Values and Valuing as Expressed in Political Ideology, Program Theory, Metrics, and Methodology (AEA 2011 – Think Tank Proposal)

March 8, 2011May 13, 2019 jamorell System Perspectives, Unintended consequences

Miscellaneous thoughts on complexity in Evaluation

How do concepts of "complexity" play in Evaluation?

February 11, 2011May 28, 2019 jamorell Evaluation as a Discipline and a Profession, Program Theory and Program Logic

AEA Session 2011 Development of a session on how ideology affects evaluation design

A discussion space for people interested in a session at AEA 2011 on how political ideology affects evaluation design.

January 17, 2011May 13, 2019 jamorell Unintended consequences

Empirical test of Jonny’s beliefs about evaluation surprise

Technical section of proposal to the National Science Foundation

November 16, 2010May 13, 2019 jamorell Evaluation as a Discipline and a Profession, Unintended consequences

Unexpected program outcomes as a function of the ideologies driving an evaluation – Some questions for the AEA

I want to spark a discussion of what evaluation might look like if it were practiced by people who were working from different ideological frameworks.

Eat dessert first. Life is uncertain.
Good advice. True observation.

Any yet, we must soldier on, trying to predict what will happen and to explain why things work out as they do. My professional life has grappled with prediction and explanation through the lens of program evaluation. I have come to appreciate how much, and how little, evaluation can tell us. Sometimes it is “much”. Sometime is “little”. Sometimes it is “much” and “little” at the same time. This blog expresses my engagement with what evaluation can do, what it cannot do, what it should do, and what it should not do. About the graphic.