Universities in Europe have been playing an increasingly important role in the institutional evaluation of political and social systems for the last thirty years. Their major contribution to those processes of accountability has been to add methods and safeguards of evaluative research. In this paper we report an illustration of how evaluative…

Needs assessments require staff with the necessary expertise to design the study, collect the data, analyze the data, and present results. They require money, time, and persistence, because the people one wishes to assess often are difficult to access. This article argues for the centrality of a well-done needs assessment when developing services…

This paper on assessment in the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) Program for welfare recipients is intended to help administrators of JOBS programs weigh the possible benefits and drawbacks of the assessment choices they must make. Chapter 1 explains why assessment matters to JOBS administrators. Chapter 2 suggests a conceptual framework…