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A number of useful research tools and guides
to program evaluation are available for reference purposes.
Some are tailored specifically to the mediation context, and
others are more general.
Although none of the following guides focus
specifically on the higher education context, they may still
be of considerable value to individuals designing evaluations
of mediation programs.
A Self-Evaluation Manual for Community-Based
Mediation Projects: Tools for Monitoring and Recording Data,
by T. Roberts. Vancouver, Canada: University of Victoria Institute
for Dispute Resolution, 1993. This example-filled manual comes
out of an evaluation, conducted in 1990-1991, of two community-based
mediation organizations in British Columbia. It provides
a variety of useful ideas, and sample data monitoring and
gathering instruments. Available from: http://www.dispute.resolution.uvic.ca
or http://www.nicr.ca/
Evaluating Agency Alternative Dispute
Resolution Programs: A Users' Guide to Data Collection and
Use, by E. S. Rolph and E. Moller. Santa Monica, California:
RAND Institute for Civil Justice, 1995. The Administrative
Conference of the United States asked the Institute for Civil
Justice to prepare a manual and develop prototype data collection
instruments to assist those with responsibility for evaluating
federal agency alternative dispute resolution programs.
The manual discusses issues in designing evaluations, lays
out approaches to data collection, provides sample data analysis
plans, and includes a number of prototype data collection
instruments. Available from: http://www.rand.org/
CADRE Resource Guide: Using Evaluation
Data to Improve Quality, by Timothy Hedeen. This resource
guide presents an overview of mediation evaluation, with a
specific focus on how to understand and make use of evaluation
findings. It is designed to help program managers understand
evaluation processes and outcomes, rather than serving as
a how-to manual on evaluation. CADRE, The National Center
on Dispute Resolution, is a project funded by the United States
Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.
They provide technical assistance to state departments of
education on implementation of the mediation requirements
under IDEA '97. CADRE also supports parents, educators
and administrators to benefit from the full continuum of dispute
resolution options. Currently under review, available
in 2002 from CADRE, P.O. Box 51360, Eugene, OR 97405-0906;
or from: http://www.directionservice.org/cadre/
Evaluating Alternative Dispute Resolution
Programs, by Lee Scharf.
This practical 19-page document is Chapter 8 of the Federal
Alternative Dispute Resolution Program Manager's Resource
Manual. It is available as a PDF file from the Interagency
Alternative Dispute Resolution Working Group (IADRWG) home
page, as a separate chapter or as part of the entire Resource
Manual. The Working Group was established to coordinate,
promote, and facilitate the effective use of dispute resolution
processes within Federal agencies as mandated by the Administrative
Dispute Resolution Act of 1996 and White House Presidential
Memorandum. Available from: http://www.usdoj.gov/adr/
Program Evaluation Kit: Victim Offender
Mediation Programs, by Mark Umbreit. Minneapolis,
MN: Minnesota Citizens Council on Crime and Justice, 1992.
This guide includes brief introductory text explaining the
importance of evaluation, and then provides a sample questionnaire
designed to be administered by program staff without need
for professional evaluators to assist them. Available
for download as a PDF file from the Center for Restorative
Justice and Peacemaking from: http://ssw.che.umn.edu/rjp/Resources/Resource.htm
Evaluating Your Conflict Resolution
Education Program: A Guide for Educators and Evaluators,
by Tricia Jones and Dan Kmitta, October 2001.
This Evaluation Guide, developed by the Ohio Commission on
Dispute Resolution and the Ohio Department of Education focuses
on methods that can be used by school conflict resolution
program grantees to evaluate program effectiveness and to
assess program impact at the building level. The authors prepared
the manual as a workbook so that it should be easy to use.
Throughout the beginning parts of the manual they have included
some worksheets to help you identify the program goals and
evaluation goals you want to emphasize. When they provide
copies of questionnaires and interview questions they have
presented them so you can simply copy the forms from the book
and use them in your school. Available for online reading
or download at http://www.state.oh.us/cdr/schools/evaluatingcrep.htm
Indiana Conflict Resolution Institute
Searchable Bibliographic Database. This online
resource is not about how to evaluate mediation services,
but instead provides information on existing evaluation reports
and articles. The database seeks to provide a comprehensive
list of empirical field studies and program evaluations on
conflict resolution. The citation search will examine
each record in the bibliography database, and select records
according to keywords entered in one or more of the following
fields: author, title, source, publisher, and/or category.
If article summaries are available, links to the summaries
will be displayed in the citation results. While it
is constantly under construction, the database includes evaluations
of conflict resolution including juvenile court, international,
employment, environmental, and labor relations programs.
The list of evaluations continues to grow and should not be
considered exhaustive. Available from: http://www.spea.indiana.edu/icri/datalist.htm
Action Evaluation Project: http://www.aepro.org
This site provides information on a participatory assessment
process known as action-evaluation. The process entails
collaboratively articulating goals and objectives among the
groups involved in a conflict intervention, including those
funding it, those organizing and convening the intervention,
and the participants themselves. The action-evaluator
collects this information from the groups and summarizes it
with the help of a computerized database (available over the
Web browser) designed to systematize the process and organize
the data. This goal articulation takes place at the
outset of an intervention, allowing the action-evaluator to
track how goals of various stakeholders evolve and use these
goals as a basis for both designing the intervention and evaluating
it along the way and at its conclusion.
Bureau of Justice Assistance Evaluation
Web Site: http://www.bja.evaluationwebsite.org
The BJA maintains an extensive Web site designed to
provide a variety of resources for evaluating primarily criminal
justice programs, but much of the information is applicable
to other contexts as well. The site includes the Electronic
Roadmap for Evaluation, which provides instructional materials
to assist in planning, designing, and conducting evaluations
of programs, and a section on evaluation resources.
It also contains a bibliography of evaluation materials organized
by specific evaluation topics.
Centers for Disease Control Evaluation
Working Group Web Site: http://www.cdc.gov/eval/resources.htm
This site provides an extensive list of categorized
online resources related to program evaluation. You
will find lots of good information here. Resources are
divided into the following groups:
* Ethics, Principles, and
Standards
* Organizations, Societies,
Foundations, Associations
* Journals and On-Line Publications
* Step-by-Step Manuals
* Logic Model Resources
* Planning and Performance
Improvement Tools
* Reports and Publications
* Suggestions
Collaborative, Participatory, and Empowerment
Evaluation Website: http://www.stanford.edu/~davidf/empowermentevaluation.html
This website, developed by David Fetterman, author of the
widely-used book Empowerment Evaluation (see below
for full reference) provides summary links to a very nice
collection of user friendly tools supporting program evaluation.
These include (often free) software programs and online interactive
evaluation development guides.
Fetterman, D. M., and others (Eds.).
(1996). Empowerment Evaluation: Knowledge and Tools
for Self-Assessment and Accountability. Thousand
Oaks, California: Sage.
Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative
Evaluation and Research Methods. Thousand Oaks,
California: Sage.
Patton, M. Q. (1996). Utilization-Focused
Evaluation. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.
Rossi, P., and Freeman, H. (1993).
Evaluation: A Systematic Approach. Thousand Oaks,
California: Sage.
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