Evaluation Failures: 22 Tales of Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned
Evaluation Failures is a candid collection of stories from seasoned evaluators from a variety of sectors sharing professional mistakes they have made in the past, and what they learned moving forward. Dive into these engaging, real-life examples that are both entertaining and informative. Each story offers universal lessons as takeaways, and discussion questions for reflective practice. These real-life blunders in the field will leave you shocked, laughing, and definitely wiser. The book is the perfect companion to anyone working in the evaluation field, and to instructors of program evaluation courses who want to bring the real world into their classroom.
Reviews
“Real failures of real evaluators . . . no additives or preservatives.”
Robert Renaud
University of Manitoba
“Evaluation Failures is an impressive evaluation guide that highlights several real-world evaluation pitfalls (as presented by experts in the field) and provides useful suggestions as to how these may be skillfully navigated. It gives both new and seasoned evaluators permission to laugh at themselves as they discover more about conducting a successful evaluation. The text introduces lessons from evaluation failures as important tools on the road to evaluation success!”
Sandra Schrouder
Barry University
“This collection is useful for evaluators that want to reflect on their own work, successes and failures, and improve their craft. It is inspiring to see how the evaluators we all look up to have identified and addressed their challenges. We can all do the same to improve our craft! This collection of stories speaks volumes to the skills that we only learn from years working in the field of evaluation. This collection of stories offers new and seasoned evaluators the opportunity to learn from the mistakes and failures that are all too common in the field of evaluation.”
Beverly L. Peters
American University
“This is the evaluation book we’ve been waiting for! A must-read for all learning and working in the field.”
Amanda M. Olejarski
West Chester University