Needs assessment gets its own chapter in the 6th, but Program Monitoring has always been there. This expanded and updated chapter exemplifies the book's objective, to provide an introduction to the range of resea rch activities used in appraising the design, implementation, and utility of social programs. Rossi et al. perceive the social context differently from Fetterman, Kemmis or Stake, not so much in the purpose as in the criteria of quality. Evaluation research is a purposeful activity, undertaken to affect policy development, to shape the design and implementation of social interventions, and to improve the management of social programs. In the broadest sense of politics, evaluation is a political activity.
Evaluations are a real-world activity.
Quantitative and qualitative approaches are integrated. It might be argued that this is just a re-labeling of old concepts, and there is some truth to the argument. Without neglecting the US literature, Owens and Rogers present us with a wider view. A project of the American Educational Research Association. Handbook of Research on Teaching.