CJ 8100 - Program Evaluation

3 cr

Perhaps the most important question for persons and institutions in the helping and public service professions is whether their efforts are accomplishing their goals. Program evaluation is the process of determining how well a program, treatment, or other intervention designed to help ameliorate social or personal problems, including but not limited to crime and delinquency, or otherwise enhance the quality of life and/or the overall well-being of society, has accomplished its goals. This process requires attention to the interests and desires of multiple segments of society who have a stake in the outcome of the intervention as well as to the principles of scientific methodology. In this course, students will learn, among other things, the importance of evaluating not only how well an intervention worked but how well it was implemented in the first place, the value of using the results of evaluations to design new programs or improve existing ones, how to conduct a program evaluation, how to evaluate the validity of a program evaluation, and, perhaps most importantly, the role of program evaluation in designing good public policy.