Evaluating Program Effectiveness

Marc T. Braverman is a Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at Oregon State University, and an Extension Specialist in OSU’s Family and Community Health program. Dr. Braverman has published in the areas of evaluation theory, applied research methods, measurement and survey methodology, tobacco control policy, health promotion, adolescent health, and other topics. He was the Associate Dean for Extension and Outreach in OSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences from 2005-2011. Prior to coming to OSU, Dr. Braverman was an Extension Specialist at the University of California, Davis (1983-2005) and an evaluator at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (now Education Northwest) in Portland, Oregon (1981-83). At UC Davis he established and directed the Tobacco Control Evaluation Center in 2004, with funding from the California Department of Health Services. In 1998-99 he was a visiting researcher at Norway’s National Institute of Public Health in Oslo, Norway. Dr. Braverman has received grants, as PI or co-Investigator, from the National Cancer Institute, the US Department of Agriculture, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the California Department of Health Services, and other funders. He co-edited the book Foundations and evaluation: Contexts and practices for effective philanthropy (Jossey-Bass, 2004). He has led numerous program and policy evaluations and has taught graduate classes on program evaluation, adolescent development, and research methods. He has a PhD in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Part One: An Overview of Validity Concepts
1. Introduction: Why a focus on validity?
2. Validity in testing and psychometrics
3. Interpretations of validity in the theory and practice of evaluation
Part 2: Validity Applied to Phases of the Evaluation Process
4. Conceptualizing your intervention
5. Translating your constructs into variables
6. Measurement strategies and measurement instruments
7. Evaluation design
8. Validity concerns applied to data analysis
9. Evaluation conclusions and recommendations
References