Optimizing Use of Evaluation Results |
Description: Policy deliberations provide a link between evaluation findings and changes in society that may improve social conditions. Many evaluators hope to influence policy through their work, but are not well versed in ways to plan and implement studies or report findings to maximize policy influence. This course will address these issues. The course emphasizes three ways that evaluation findings can influence policy deliberations: raising social problems; identifying potential solutions; and adapting the solution to specific circumstances. Participants will learn to identify targets of opportunity for influencing policy debates and think through how to plan and implement evaluations to take advantage of such opportunities. In addition, the presentations will show how adding supplemental data can enhance usefulness of evaluations for policy deliberations and how to report data and access channels for getting information to citizens and policymakers. Participants are invited to share types and levels of policy they wish to influence so course materials can be tailored to those interests. Instructor: Dr. Gary T. Henry is Professor in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies and Department of Political Science at Georgia State University. He has served as Director of Evaluation and Learning Services for The David and Lucile Packard Foundation in Los Altos, CA, and has written numerous articles on evaluation and policy analysis, most recently concentrating on the effects of education policies and public information campaigns. Along with Jennifer Greene he serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of New Directions for Evaluation. He has authored, co-authored, or edited five books the most recent of which is Evaluation: An Integrated Framework for Understanding, Guiding, and Improving Policies and Programs (with Melvin M. Mark and George Julnes). Dr. Henry received AEA's award for Evaluation of the Year in 1998 and, with Steve Harkreader, the 2001 Joseph S. Wholey Distinguished Scholarship Award from the American Society for Public Administration and Center for Accountability and Performance.
Certificates: CEP IC.e and CAEP IIC.e CEU: |
