Realworld Evaluation: Working Under Budget, Time, Data, and Political Constraints

RealWorld Evaluation: Working Under Budget, Time, Data, and Political Constraints is the only textbook that provides specific guidance on how to conduct evaluations when working under resource and/or data constraints. Authors Michael Bamberger, Jim Rugh, and Linda Mabry illustrate options for addressing each constraint through practical examples from both developed and developing countries to show how adapting to different types of exigencies can lead to successful evaluations.

Jim Rugh has had 41 years of professional involvement in rural community development in Africa, Asia, and Appalachia. He has specialized in evaluation for 25 years-the past 10 years as head of Design, Monitoring and Evaluation for CARE International, a large nongovernmental organization (NGO). His particular skills include promoting strategies for enhanced capacity for evaluation throughout this worldwide organization. He is a recognized leader in evaluation among colleagues in the international NGO community, including InterAction. He has been an active member of the American Evaluation Association since 1986, currently serving on the Nominations and Election Committee. He was a founding member of the Atlanta-area Evaluation Association. He has experience in promoting community development and evaluating and facilitating self-evaluation by participants in such programs. He has provided training for and/or evaluated many different international NGOs. He brings a perspective of the “big picture,” including familiarity with a wide variety of community groups and assistance agencies in many countries, plus an eye to detail and a respect for inclusiveness and the participatory process.

Michael Bamberger has almost 40 years of experience in development evaluation, including a decade working with nongovernmental organizations in Latin America, almost 25 years working on evaluation with the World Bank in most of the social and economic sectors and in most regions of the world, and 10 years as an independent evaluation consultant, including programs with 10 United Nations agencies and multilateral and bilateral development agencies. He has published three books and several monographs and handbooks on development evaluation, as well as numerous articles in professional journals. He has been active for 20 years with the American Evaluation Association, serving on the Board and as Chair of the International Committee. He has served on the Editorial Advisory Board of New Directions for Evaluation, the Journal of Development Effectiveness, the Journal of Mixed Methods Research, and the American Journal of Evaluation and is a regular reviewer for several professional evaluation journals. He has taught program evaluation in more than 30 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East and, since 2002, has been on the Faculty of the International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; since 2001, has also lectured at the Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development (FASID) in Tokyo.

Linda Mabry is a faculty member at Washington State University specializing in program evaluation, student assessment, and research and evaluation methodology. She currently serves as president of the Oregon Program Evaluation Network and on the editorial board for Studies in Educational Evaluation. She has served in a variety of leadership positions for the American Evaluation Association, including the Board of Directors, chair of the Task Force on Educational Accountability, and chair of the Theories of Evaluation topical interest group. She has also served n the Board of Trustees for the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessments and on the Performance Assessment Review Board of New York. She has conducted evaluations for the U.S. Department of Education, National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the Jacob Javits Foundation, Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Ameritech Corporation, ATT-Comcast Corporation, the New York City Fund for Public Education, the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education, the Chicago Teachers Academy of Mathematics and Science, and a variety of university, state, and school agencies. She has published in a number of scholarly journals and written several books, including Evaluation and the Postmodern Dilemma (1997) and Portfolios Plus: A Critical Guide to Performance Assessment (1999).