Evaluation Ethics for Best Practice: Cases and Commentaries

Focusing on ethical challenges in program evaluation, this innovative book features six case-study scenarios that end at a point where the evaluator faces a significant decision about how to proceed. For each case, two distinguished evaluators offer insights on the best course of action to choose, and why. "What If?" boxes modify the details of the scenarios, inviting readers to reflect on whether these changes alter the ethical implications of the case. Six additional cases are presented with questions that guide readers to develop their own ethical analyses. The book is organized to follow the progress of an evaluation, from the entry/contracting phase through the utilization of results.

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Reviewer:Christopher J. Graver, PhD(Madigan Army Medical Center)
Description:For those in the fields of evaluation research, community psychology, and public policy who are familiar with program evaluation, this book focuses on the ethical challenges that may arise in completing such work.
Purpose:The main intent is to provide concrete examples of ethical challenges in program evaluation, as well as expert opinions on how to handle these challenges.
Audience:The book is targeted at anyone involved in program evaluation, but will mostly include professionals and students from the above-mentioned disciplines. The editor and contributing authors hail from academic backgrounds in related fields that put them in an ideal position to comment on this topic.
Features:This book is written at a level that anticipates some background knowledge of program evaluation. Each chapter begins with a description of the program to be evaluated, then has discussions of ethical issues and looks towards the Guiding Principles (which are in an appendix) for insight. Areas where the Guiding Principles are not helpful are also surveyed. Different authors chime in with comments about the situation, analysis of issues, and suggestions for ways to overcome these challenges. This is done for each stage of the program evaluation from the initial contract to utilizing the results. Readers will find little in the way of figures or tables; the interminable text can become tedious.
Assessment:Although readers will find some ethical challenges in this book, it is more of a best-practice volume than a survey of ethical confrontation. It may be useful to some seeking guidance for common problems, but it also may be a bit insipid.

Michael Morris is Professor of Psychology at the University of New Haven, where he directs the Master's Program in Community Psychology. He served as the first editor of the Ethical Challenges section of the American Journal of Evaluation from 1998 to 2004. His publications have appeared in Evaluation Review, Evaluation and Program Planning, the American Journal of Community Psychology, and the Journal of Community of Psychology, among others. He coedited, with Jody Fitzpatrick, the New Directions for Evaluation volume devoted to "Current and Emerging Ethical Challenges in Evaluation" (1999). Dr. Morris is a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of New Directions for Evaluation and the American Journal of Evaluation and has served as Chair of the Ethics Committee and the Public Affairs Committee of the American Evaluation Association. His other books include Poverty and Public Policy (with John Williamson) and Myths about the Powerless (with M. Brinton Lykes, Ramsay Liem, and Ali Banuazizi). A trainer in evaluation ethics throughout the United States and abroad, he received his PhD in community-social psychology from Boston College.