IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v385y1969i1p133-142.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Evaluation of Broad-Aim Programs: A Cautionary Case and a Moral

Author

Listed:
  • Robert S. Weiss
  • Martin Rein

Abstract

It is often assumed that the ideal study-design for evaluation of the effectiveness of a social program would be a controlled experiment. A case study is presented of an evaluation-research project which utilized such a design. The project encountered both technical difficulties and intraorganizational friction, which, it is argued, are virtually inherent in the utilization of an experimental design for the appraisal of the effects of a broad-aim, largely unstandardized, and inadequately replicated action-program. Among the technical difficulties are problems in the identification of criteria, problems having to do with the exclusion of alien variables, problems associated with the changing form of the intervention, and problems associated with the limitations of the experimental form as a source of new knowledge. Among the sources of intraorganizational friction are the constraints on stimulus-modification imposed by the experimental commitment, the tendency of operationalizations of aims to become aims in their own right, and the comparative ignorance regarding what the action-program is doing on the part of a research group which is concentrating on the collection of baseline data. A plea is made for evaluation which would be more qualitative and process-oriented.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert S. Weiss & Martin Rein, 1969. "The Evaluation of Broad-Aim Programs: A Cautionary Case and a Moral," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 385(1), pages 133-142, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:385:y:1969:i:1:p:133-142
    DOI: 10.1177/000271626938500112
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000271626938500112
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/000271626938500112?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:385:y:1969:i:1:p:133-142. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.