Concerns of Underrepresented Stakeholders Assignment
Order ID |
53563633773 |
Type |
Essay |
Writer Level |
Masters |
Style |
APA |
Sources/References |
4 |
Perfect Number of Pages to Order |
5-10 Pages |
Description/Paper Instructions
Concerns of Underrepresented Stakeholders Assignment
- Offering a final evaluative judgment. An evaluator should synthesize his findings into a final report and offer his/her summative judgment. Strength and Weakness of Scriven’s Position: Scriven differentiates evaluators from researchers or social scientists by emphasizing that the value judgment is an integral part of an evaluator’s role and grounds such role
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in the logic of evaluation. His “goal-free” evaluation allows evaluators to identify possible side effects of the evaluand and address the concerns of underrepresented stakeholders. However, besides giving evaluators higher authority over different stakeholders in value judgment, Scriven fails to provide a solution to eliminate personal biases of evaluators. Metaevaluation proposed by Scriven is a good attempt but still it is highly subjective and requires years of experiences and expertise for an evaluator to make a non-biased judgment.
For the novice evaluator, the decision of whose needs should be considered and which merit should take higher priority can still be very arbitrary. Besides, a complete goal-free evaluation is also highly unfeasible when an evaluator is hired by his/her clients and has an obligation to answer their specific inquiries. 2.2 Campbell Campbell believes that evaluators should play a role of methodologist during the program evaluation (Shadish, 1991, p.141). Evaluators should use scientific methodologies to design evaluative research that eliminate biases and establish a causal inference about a program and its hypothesized effects. This role of methodologist advocated by Campbell requires evaluators to employ a strong research design such as randomized experiment or good quasi-experiment to determine the causal effectiveness of the program. (Shadish, 1991, p.129) An evaluator should also distance him/herself from the program stakeholders and work independently to find out the facts about the program. As for the dissemination of the evaluation findings, an evaluator should “write honest reports for peers even if they cannot do so for funders or the public.” (Shadish, 1991, p.162) Last but not least, it is also the obligation of evaluators to play an active role in scrutinizing, replicating, and debating the evaluation results. Campbell’s emphasis on methods of measuring the program outcome makes him less concerned about assigning values to the program or facilitating the use of evaluation. As a result, he believes an evaluator is not responsible for doing the following:
- An evaluator is not obligated to assign value to the program being evaluated. Valuing of evaluation results should be left to the political process, not researchers. (Shadish, 1991, p.160).
- An evaluator shouldn’t promote use of her evaluation results actively “since this detracts from the credibility of the more factlike findings.” (Shadish, 1991, p.162).
- It is up to the policy maker, stakeholders to decide how to interpret, disseminate and use the evaluation results.
- An evaluator is not obligated to generate a different or modified program worth testing. Her job is simply testing the efficacy of existing programs.
- An evaluator should avoid evaluating institutions, social organizations, or persons due to the almost inevitable corruption pressure. (Campbell, 1984, p.41). Strength and Weakness of Campbell’s Position: The methodologist role Campbell assigns to evaluators is echoed with the proposal for conducting “scientifically based evaluation” as advocated by the Department of Education. The role of a methodologist as defined by Campbell focuses on the internal validity of the causal inference while is less concerned about the prescribing values and utility of the evaluation findings therefore is quite suitable for an external evaluation regarding program outcome. Such role for an evaluator will also greatly enhance the scientific nature of evaluation as a profession. Nevertheless, the weaknesses are also quite obvious for such role of an evaluator. First of all, it is hard to distinguish evaluation from other social science research if one sees an evaluator merely as a research methodologist. Apparently, not every social scientist can do a good evaluation. Secondly, doing a rigorous experiment design is preferable but not always feasible. The cost and time for doing a randomized control experiment, as well as its intrusion into program might result in fewer and fewer evaluation being done due to the reluctance from program administrators. Last but not least, the methodologist role restricts evaluators to study only the outcome of the program while missing other key information such as how the program is implemented, or which element of the program works and doesn’t work. As a result, an evaluator couldn’t give advice about how to improve the program or adapt the program to fit other contexts. 2.3 Stake Stake believes an evaluator should play a facilitator role during the evaluation. The evaluator should assist different stakeholders to “discover ideas, answers, and solutions within their own mind” by conducting
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responsive evaluation. (Stake & Trumbull, 1982, p.1) According to Stake, the responsibilities of an evaluator include:
- Identifying the stakeholders for whom the evaluation will be used: The evaluator should have a good sense of whom he is working for and their concerns. (Stake, 1975, as cited in Shadish 1991, p.273). Minority stakeholder groups should also be included to ensure justice and fairness.
- Spending more time observing the program and providing accurate portrayals of the program using case studies. Because case studies reflect the complexities of the reality, they help readers to form their own opinions and judgments about the case and they can be “useful in theory building”. (Stake, 1978, as cited in Shadish 1991, p.289)
- Conducting responsive evaluation which allows evaluation questions and methods to emerge from observing the program. In this approach, evaluators will orient evaluation directly to program activities than to the program goals and respond promptly to audience information requests.
- Presenting his evaluation findings in the “natural ways in which people assimilate information and arrive at understandings” so that the writings can reach maximal comprehensibility. (Stake, 1980, p.83) Stake doesn’t believe an evaluator should make a summative value judgment since there is “no single true value” for all the stakeholders of a program. (Stake, 1975, as cited in Shadish 1991, p.274) As a result, evaluators shouldn’t blindly accept state and federal standards and impose treatments on local programs since such standards are not pluralistic and might not be in the best interest of local people. (Shadish, 1991, 279) Stake also believes the responsibility of synthesizing and interpreting case studies lies in the readers rather than evaluators and it is up to the readers to resolve any conflicting arguments. (Shadish 1991, p.293) Strength and Weakness of Stake’s Position: the facilitator role for an evaluator, as suggested by Stake, has two major strengths. First, it indicates the interest shift among evaluators from giving a summative judgment, whether it is a value judgment or an effect judgment, to generating useful information that can be used to improve the program. Secondly, it justifies new ways to conduct an evaluation (e.g. responsive evaluation, case study) and report its findings (e.g. narrative portrayal). However, Stake fails to take into account clients’ expectations about the proper role for an evaluator. Will clients accept the case study as the only approach of investigation? Will clients allow evaluators to start evaluations without preordinate questions? Is it appropriate for an evaluator to completely ignore the state or federal standards when evaluating local programs? All those doubts regarding the feasibility and validity of case studies or responsive evaluation will also undermine the social acceptance of the evaluator role proposed by Stake. 2.4 Weiss Weiss emphasizes the evaluator’s special role in promoting the use of his/her evaluation results, especially in the policy-making process. She is frustrated about the fact that “evaluation results have generally not exerted significant influence on program decisions”, and she argues that evaluation should start out with use in mind and evaluators shouldn’t leave the use of evaluation to the natural processes of dissemination and application. (Weiss, 1972, as cited in Shadish 1991, p.182-183) Weiss claims that evaluation “should be continuing education for program managers, planners and policy makers”. (Weiss, 1988, p.18) As a result, it seems that she sees the role of evaluator more as an educator, who conducts evaluation not for giving an explicit solution to a social problem, but for providing useful information to its potential users, policy-makers in particular. She urges evaluators to look beyond the instrumental use of evaluation results and conduct “enlightenment” research that “provides evidence that can be used by men and women of judgment in their efforts to research solutions” (Weiss, 1978, p.76) so as to maximize the utility of evaluation results. By doing evaluation this way, an evaluator should
- Assess the likelihood that evaluation results might be used. (Shadish, 1991, p.198)
- Ask questions that can “provide an intellectual setting of concepts, propositions, orientations, and empirical generalizations” for policy making. (Weiss, 1978, as cited in Shadish 1991, p.202)
RUBRIC
QUALITY OF RESPONSE |
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POOR / UNSATISFACTORY |
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EXCELLENT |
Content (worth a maximum of 50% of the total points) |
Zero points: Student failed to submit the final paper. |
20 points out of 50: The essay illustrates poor understanding of the relevant material by failing to address or incorrectly addressing the relevant content; failing to identify or inaccurately explaining/defining key concepts/ideas; ignoring or incorrectly explaining key points/claims and the reasoning behind them; and/or incorrectly or inappropriately using terminology; and elements of the response are lacking. |
30 points out of 50: The essay illustrates a rudimentary understanding of the relevant material by mentioning but not full explaining the relevant content; identifying some of the key concepts/ideas though failing to fully or accurately explain many of them; using terminology, though sometimes inaccurately or inappropriately; and/or incorporating some key claims/points but failing to explain the reasoning behind them or doing so inaccurately. Elements of the required response may also be lacking. |
40 points out of 50: The essay illustrates solid understanding of the relevant material by correctly addressing most of the relevant content; identifying and explaining most of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology; explaining the reasoning behind most of the key points/claims; and/or where necessary or useful, substantiating some points with accurate examples. The answer is complete. |
50 points: The essay illustrates exemplary understanding of the relevant material by thoroughly and correctly addressing the relevant content; identifying and explaining all of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology explaining the reasoning behind key points/claims and substantiating, as necessary/useful, points with several accurate and illuminating examples. No aspects of the required answer are missing. |
Use of Sources (worth a maximum of 20% of the total points). |
Zero points: Student failed to include citations and/or references. Or the student failed to submit a final paper. |
5 out 20 points: Sources are seldom cited to support statements and/or format of citations are not recognizable as APA 6th Edition format. There are major errors in the formation of the references and citations. And/or there is a major reliance on highly questionable. The Student fails to provide an adequate synthesis of research collected for the paper. |
10 out 20 points: References to scholarly sources are occasionally given; many statements seem unsubstantiated. Frequent errors in APA 6th Edition format, leaving the reader confused about the source of the information. There are significant errors of the formation in the references and citations. And/or there is a significant use of highly questionable sources. |
15 out 20 points: Credible Scholarly sources are used effectively support claims and are, for the most part, clear and fairly represented. APA 6th Edition is used with only a few minor errors. There are minor errors in reference and/or citations. And/or there is some use of questionable sources. |
20 points: Credible scholarly sources are used to give compelling evidence to support claims and are clearly and fairly represented. APA 6th Edition format is used accurately and consistently. The student uses above the maximum required references in the development of the assignment. |
Grammar (worth maximum of 20% of total points) |
Zero points: Student failed to submit the final paper. |
5 points out of 20: The paper does not communicate ideas/points clearly due to inappropriate use of terminology and vague language; thoughts and sentences are disjointed or incomprehensible; organization lacking; and/or numerous grammatical, spelling/punctuation errors |
10 points out 20: The paper is often unclear and difficult to follow due to some inappropriate terminology and/or vague language; ideas may be fragmented, wandering and/or repetitive; poor organization; and/or some grammatical, spelling, punctuation errors |
15 points out of 20: The paper is mostly clear as a result of appropriate use of terminology and minimal vagueness; no tangents and no repetition; fairly good organization; almost perfect grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word usage. |
20 points: The paper is clear, concise, and a pleasure to read as a result of appropriate and precise use of terminology; total coherence of thoughts and presentation and logical organization; and the essay is error free. |
Structure of the Paper (worth 10% of total points) |
Zero points: Student failed to submit the final paper. |
3 points out of 10: Student needs to develop better formatting skills. The paper omits significant structural elements required for and APA 6th edition paper. Formatting of the paper has major flaws. The paper does not conform to APA 6th edition requirements whatsoever. |
5 points out of 10: Appearance of final paper demonstrates the student’s limited ability to format the paper. There are significant errors in formatting and/or the total omission of major components of an APA 6th edition paper. They can include the omission of the cover page, abstract, and page numbers. Additionally the page has major formatting issues with spacing or paragraph formation. Font size might not conform to size requirements. The student also significantly writes too large or too short of and paper |
7 points out of 10: Research paper presents an above-average use of formatting skills. The paper has slight errors within the paper. This can include small errors or omissions with the cover page, abstract, page number, and headers. There could be also slight formatting issues with the document spacing or the font Additionally the paper might slightly exceed or undershoot the specific number of required written pages for the assignment. |
10 points: Student provides a high-caliber, formatted paper. This includes an APA 6th edition cover page, abstract, page number, headers and is double spaced in 12’ Times Roman Font. Additionally, the paper conforms to the specific number of required written pages and neither goes over or under the specified length of the paper. |
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