AC Reviews

This is the second edition of Weiss's original work on the subject of evaluation. The first edition written in the early 1970's really is a classic of the policy analysis field, a definite five in the Amazon rating scale. Unfortunatley, the second edition is an illustration of where less is more. It contains alot of detailed text that makes it a good reference, but a very poor read.

The purpose of Weiss's book is to give students, and practitioners an introduction to the field of evaluation. Evaluation is much like a 'how-to' manual of the policy sciences. It is filled with lists of important facets of research such as material explaining the concepts of scientific inquiry, and material on different research methodologies such as the difference between a random sample and a convenience sample, or the difference between qualitative and quantitative research. Weiss even gives advice on what to expect from the program staff during an evaluation and how to handle the inevitable tensions evaluation creates. Throughout her book, Weiss concentrates on driving home one central idea: Good evaluation is based on defining, testing and analyzing the assumptions of program theory. There are many different areas in which programs can run astray, but by focussing on theory, the evaluator can keep themselves on track. Surprisingly, after emphasizing this point, Weiss fails to place the concept of evaluation within a larger theoretical framework. Her book contains a short discussion of the political legislation that triggered the growth of evaluation science, but it does not outline the assumptions or the alternatives behind the legislation. Evaluation is best used as a reference for clarification on particular evaluation research issues, and not as a text from which to understand the implicit assumptions of evaluation science.

This book serves two purposes. It is a comprehensive text on evaluation aimed at both practitioners and academics, but most importantly, it is a treatise aimed at introducing a new evaluation framework. It is a textbook with a point of view. The authors begin with the premise that the fundamental purpose of evaluation is social betterment, which is "...the reduction or prevention of social problems, the improvement of social conditions, and the alleviation of human suffering." From these roots, they build a new 'realistic' evaluation framework. Although aimed primarily at public and non-profit organizations, many of the lessons can be applied in the private sector as well.

Part one examines why one would want to do an evaluation in the first place. The authors purport that evaluation is a fundamental part of the democratic process because it is crucial in informing policy and decision makers about the effectiveness of public policy and programs. The book reviews the four purposes of evaluation (assessment of merit and worth, program and organizational improvement, oversight and compliance, and knowledge development) and introduces the four inquiry modes (description, classification, causal analysis and values inquiry). The authors provide extensive coverage and a critique of the academic debates concerning purposes, modes and methodology. This leads to the proposal of a realistic philosophy, which aims to move beyond traditional paradigm silos. The authors argue that by focusing on the ultimate goal of social betterment and by seeking to surface underlying values, it is possible to follow a path that tailors methodology to intended purpose.

Part two covers evaluation planning and begins the practical application part of the book. Different evaluation purposes become paramount and are more aptly suited, depending on the environment (stable, competitive, shifts in funding or new policy/program). Choosing appropriate methodology and evaluation extensiveness (i.e. quality) is aided by an understanding of primary and secondary evaluation purposes; the book provides decision-making matrices as well as many examples and references. The authors expand on their notion of a 'common-sense realistic' philosophy and provide an extensive overview of the supporting principles. It is a philosophy underlined by the notion of evaluation as 'assisted sensemaking' that aims to build upon and extend natural human perceptual processes. In practice, it is flexible, antiformalist and rejects the fact-value and qualitative-quantitative dichotomies. In short, it aims to do what works in a given situation and contributes the most to social betterment.

Part three provides extensive detail on the four inquiry modes (description, classification, causal analysis and values inquiry). Each chapter provides a complete overview: detailed arguments about how the selected mode can be used to support the four evaluation purposes, examples of specific evaluation methodology, interactions, notable caveats and pitfalls and an overview of critical opinion. The sections on classification and causal analysis are especially extensive, full of detailed methodology and references to external sources. The authors expand on the notion of how values inquiry can be critical in a complementary role with other modes.

The authors conclude with a statement that the field of evaluation is "...moving towards yet another rite of passage." They argue that evaluators need "...to take their proper place in the policy community" and they must become "...shameless in broadly spreading their findings...." They make a final argument in support of their realistic philosophy.

The book is often dense with citations, making for difficult reading at times. In places, especially in part one, the level of detail is far beyond that needed by the average practitioner. However, this would seem to suit the academic audience, who would find the sections devoted to methodology (aimed at practitioners) unnecessary. It seems a happy compromise. Name and subject indexes facilitate use of the book as a reference text. A thorough bibliography points the reader to external sources. It is a text thoroughly worth the attention of anyone interested in the field of evaluation.

As a social worker committed to empowerment of oppressed peoples, I come to David Fetterman's "Foundations of empowerment evaluation" favorably predisposed. This favorable disposition is reinforced when Fetterman writes that empowerment evaluation has usually "focused on traditionally disenfranchised, oppressed, and economically impoverished populations" (p. 114). He could just as well be talking about the focus of social work practice.

I also bring to Fetterman's book a growing discomfort with traditional, empiricist research and program evaluation. My colleagues have been working for several years with different Native American tribes and have learned first-hand why research is so often considered a dirty word in Indain Country. At best, positivist research and evaluation are usually irrelevant to the experience and concerns of Native peoples, at worst it contributes to their continued subjugation by reinforcing negative stereotypes. I therefore come to Fetterman's book with a keen interest in research and evaluation which in itself is a benefit to the participants.

Empowerment evaluation, as articulated by Fetterman, is located within "the larger context of emancipatory research" (Fetterman, 2001, p. 110) and specifically action research. Empowerment evaluation differs from action research, however, because it is "explicitly driven by the concept of self-determination" and collaboration at every level of the agency, program, or community being evaluated (p. 11). Within that framework, empowerment evaluation helps people analyze their programs using self-evaluation and self-reflection. In contrast with some program assessments conducted by outside evaluators, empowerment evaluation is not an endpoint but in integral part of program development and improvement (p. 3). As a result, empowerment evaluation "ideally helps organizations internalize evaluation principles and practices, making evaluation an integral part of program planning" (p. 35). Not surprisingly, Fetterman equates using empowerment evaluation with teaching participants to fish.

The methodology of empowerment evaluation is deceptively simple. First, gather everyone involved in the program together, from clients to workers, to administrators, to funders. The empowerment evaluator then acts as a coach or facilitator, who leads the group through three activities: 1) explicate the mission of vision of the program; 2) take stock of each program activity, rating how well each is doing; and 3) plan for the future by setting goals, strategies for reaching the goals, and documentation to be used to track progress. Because empowerment evaluation is ideally an ongoing process, the first time through these steps forms the baseline for monitoring future progress.

Methodologically, the obvious potential weakness of empowerment evaluation is the possibility of generating self-serving, 'sugar-coated' results (p. 5-6). "An outside evaluator charged with monitoring the progress can help keep the effort credible, useful, and on track, providing additional rigor, reality checks, and quality controls throughout the evaluation" (Fetterman, 2001, p. 6). This task is operationalized during the ranking phase, for example, when the empowerment evaluator questions each individual's ranking of each activity, asking for specific documentation of why the rating is no higher and no lower than they have indicated. Additional rigor is gained, according to Fetterman, by indicating that people can change their ratings at any time. Mostly, however, Fetterman argues that trustworthiness flows from the nature of the group (the insistence on democratic participation of clients, workers, and administrators), and the group process itself which he claims comes to conclusions which are more realistic than the conclusions of external evaluators (pp. 32-33).

Unfortunately Fetterman's organization and writing of this volume does little to support his claim that empowerment evaluation is rigorous and inherently trustworthy. In terms of organization, note that the two quotes I used to locate empowerment evaluation within research and evaluation traditions were separated by 100 pages. Repeatedly, ideas and concepts are partially developed in one place, only to be modified or more fully defined/described much later. In many ways, this review has made Fetterman's book more comprehensible than it is. For example, I stated previously that when participants rank program activities they must provide documentation. Fetterman, however, discusses ranking on page 29, but waits 60 pages (almost half the book) to mention that "documentation is always required to support a high or low rating about a program assessment, and is scrutinized." (p. 93).

In addition, Fetterman's writing often confuses or obscures important points. The trustworthiness of empowerment evaluation rests in large part on including the perspective of every stakeholder and participant in the program, from clients to administrators. Fetterman, unfortunately, uses the term program participants variously, mostly to refer to paid employees, but occasionally also to include clients (e.g. pp. 3, 34, &146). As a result we are never sure who he is talking about participating in what aspect of the evaluation. Similarly, Fetterman refers to "outside evaluators" both as the 'coaches' who help participants throughout the process and, in other places, as people not otherwise involved in any aspect of the evaluation. Consequently when Fetterman writes that "An outside evaluator charged ... can help keep the effort credible, useful, and on track" (2001, p. 6), I have no idea who is responsible for this crucial methodological function.

Finally, Fetterman states that the trustworthiness and utility of empowerment evaluation flow, in large measure, from use of baseline data and repeated empowerment evaluation sessions. Though Fetterman devotes more than a third of his book to case examples, every one of those examples is of an initial evaluation, never a follow-up session. Because Fetterman (belatedly) admits that empowerment evaluation "takes more time than most traditional evaluations (p. 145), I am left wondering if follow up is ever conducted.

The disorganization of the book unfortunately contributes to an impression that empowerment evaluation is methodologically less rigorous than I believe it really is. Fetterman thus undermines the very evaluation methodology which he passionately believes in and espouses.

This is one of the few books to provide an introduction to PSpice under OrCAD. To be fair, it does cover the basics and it does so to a greater extent than might be considered necessary. If you are a practising engineer looking to get up to speed on the fundamentals of using PSpice (as I am) you will probably find the elementary content and presentation far too simplistic and unecessary. It looks as if it were aimed more at introductory electronics students, getting to grips with this software for the first time. Even allowing for this the text is weak in some areas: for example, electrical phasors are sometimes incorrectly referred to as 'physors'. Who proof-read this? They must have been asleep.

The most useful aspect of the book for new PSpice users are the hints scattered in 'Simulation Notes' throughout. These provide useful tips and hints on how to accomplish various fundamental tasks, such as changing axis settings and modifying traces.

In short, this book has some value to the new PSpice user, but is very poorly produced and overly simple for most engineering students or engineers who may need a basic PSpice reference. The presentation level is low; the whole thing is not really produced to a professional standard but looks as if it were a collection of lecture notes which got turned into a book after some very minimal editing. It's somewhat useful to learn some of the necessary PSpice tricks but falls very short when you consider how much better this topic could have been covered with a more rigorous and less dumbed-down style.

The book itself is written for a classroom enviroment. It does not direcly teach you how to use PSPICE, but rather, is designed for a teacher to assign problems, and the students to solve them. Limited instruction is given, but there are problems that contain no written solutions. The major drawback for this is that if you run into difficulty solving a problem, you are stuck. There is no solutions manual, and the description of the book offered by Amazon makes it sound like this is a step-by-step helper. But, being the only book written (that I could find for Version 7/8) on the subject, we are left to use it. The index is also poorly constucted, with less than 100 entries, for a 600+ (both vol) book. In the end though, it has taught me some things I did not know. A solutions manual (or proper representation of the book by amazon) would also be very benefical.

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Save yourself time and money, buy the oem shop manual if available. There are not many specific "generating sections" covered and not alot of detail in what is covered. Engine section is ok.

for my particular generator, i DID NOT learn anything that i hadn't read in the owners manual about troubleshooting the generator portion. it's still not generating power. most of the book is on the engines of these generators. i know how to fix engines.

I have never ordered such a poor quality audio program in my life,from the usually credible Amazon.com!

I am very disappointed about this audio program because of the following reasons:

1. Poor presenter-- how can he teaches someone to set up and market seminars. 2. Poor, low costs , opportunistic audio production, with actually very short duration. 3. Poor packaging and audio program image--- how can this author has the credentials to teach others to market their audio programs, when he cannot even set a convincing example.

Actually if not the packaging has already opened by me, I really want to get a refund from Amazon.com in order to calm down my customer dissatifaction.

These are the lessons that I want to share with you out of this purchase:

1. Never buy from unknown authors, unless they really look credible, and understand what they talk about.

2. Never order something from Amazon.com when you cannot even

see it from the screen, such as book cover, book inside, or packaging.

3. Never buy books or audiotapes in a hurry, especially those books which have no customer reviews or low sales rank on the Amazon.com.

In brief, order really carefully!

If this were 15 years earlier, this book would be great. Being as it is 2001, I think it is EXTREMELY pathetic that it comes with a 5 inch floppy. Remember way back when we used those??? Also, the labs are so outdated that they don't even work properly. Only a professor who truly wants to torment his or her students would assign this outdated book.

This book was first published in 1987, and updated in 1993. Much of the info included is badly out-of-date.