Evaluating the Outcomes of Human Service Programs: A Reassessment

In: Evaluation review: a journal of applied social research, Volume 6, Issue 6, p. 731-752

Abstract

Measuring client and program outcomes in human services remains as difficult as it is controversial. In the context of changing public funding in many social programs, we offer an assessment of current problems facing outcome evaluation as conceptualized in legislation, as practiced at the agency level and from a systems perspective. The article points out that while research and evaluation are clearly interdependent functions, they operate with differing value, resource, and reward systems when program outcome performance is assessed. We argue for a new balance of effort between the prospective validation of social welfare programs (research) and retrospective program analysis (evaluation).