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AbstractAn unprecedented challenge to the evaluation profession has arisen from the increasing demand for documentation of results of public and nonprofit programs. The current status of performance measurement efforts is described in this chapter, and many challenges facing program managers and other users of performance data are identified.

This article examines the changing nature of program evaluation and the way in which program evaluation is taught to MPA students. Drawing on her experience at George Washington University, the authors explains an approach to teaching program evaluation that has received a great deal of positive feedback. The approach has its foundation, real‐world, hands‐on evaluation by the students, which gives them invaluable experience. Furthermore, because there is extensive instructor involvement, the author asserts that the experience proves also to be of value to the professor.

The evidence-building mandate -- Assessing the quality of evidence -- Employing evaluative thinking -- Developing learning agendas for public organizations -- Building capacity to generate and supply evidence -- Building capacity to use evidence -- Sustaining momentum for evidence-building -- Capacity in government.

Although the methods wars that were entrenched in most of the social science disciplines well into the 1990s have purportedly ceased, methodological diversity remains rare in public administration. We suggest that the productive interaction between methods, theory, and praxis in the field of public administration requires further methodological integration. Through a review of articles published in Review of Public Personnel Administration ( ROPPA) since 2011, we show that the promise of mixed-methods design has not fully materialized. We explore avenues for implementing mixed-methods research designs that are particularly appropriate for examining the behavior and motivations of public service personnel by identifying examples of articles in ROPPA that used a single-method approach but could have usefully leveraged a diversity of methods to answer their primary research question. We then support our case for the use of integrated mixed-methods with a study of the institutionalization of a performance assessment system in an international organization.

Federalist No. 23 offers a strong case for national power and the need to grant "means proportional to the end" to the new government. This essay argues that the founders could not have anticipated the breadth of today's national agenda and offers a framework for designing a more strategic and effective public enterprise.