WTF HCZ?

We are big fans of the Harlem Children’s Zone around these parts. Like many others, I’m sure part of it is romantic – we aspire to see a social program work as well as HCZ appears because we love Harlem and we love magic bullets. If it works there, it…

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Why Proposals Fail

Summer, as you  know, is proposal season. I’ve been up to my neck (literally – these proposals are huge) in stacks of papers, reviewing ideas seeking support from various federal agencies. Regardless of the agency, some proposals seem to fare less well for common reasons. Here’s my breakdown (and strictly…

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Oil In My Backyard

Right now, the midwest’s largest oil spill in history is flowing through my backyard. The pipeline, taking oil from Indiana to Canada, burst sometime Sunday or Monday this past week (3-4 days ago), sending 840,000 barrels of oil into a creek, that flows to the Kalamazoo River, that flows to…

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Rachel Maddow Probably Loves Evaluation.

Without a TV in my home, I haven’t been privy to the awesomeness that is Rachel Maddow until last night, in my hotel room in Little Rock. She was speaking with Richard Holbrooke, US special rep for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Maddow had recently visited Afghanistan to report on the front…

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You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Reading a decent book, came across a great point: The book is Start With Why and it really labors on the fact that great businesses lead with their WHY right out front, not their WHAT (or their HOW). Okay, but how does this relate to evaluation? The author discusses how…

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Confession of a Qual Lover

Sigh. For better or worse, I am known as the qualitative person around here. While I do, admittedly, have a strong fondness for qualitative work, I know better that to think it is the right tool for every job. Yet, my reputation precedes me and I’m often asked to defend…

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If It Ain’t Broke

I found the cutest old-man optometrist. He puttered around the room, in cute old man fashion. He had a little cute old man mantra: “if it ain’t broke…” Him: Are your contacts working okay for you? Me: Sure, I guess. Him: Well, if it ain’t broke… Me: But aren’t you…

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Don’t Even Try

I love being on the other side. I am in the midst of reviewing evaluator letters of interest – miniproposals – to evaluate one of my work projects. Rarely am I in the position to need the evaluator. Usually I am the one submitting my ideas and credentials. The pile…

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Vocabulary Quiz

This post has been a long time coming. In the not so distant past, I tried to publicly criticize (I know, I know…) how authors of an evaluation book mis-taught formative and summative. Not such a big deal if they are personally in error, but a much larger offense if…

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Nix the Table of Contents

If the evaluation report is so long it needs a table of contents, you know you have gone too far. I have been researching the communication of evaluation findings in preparation for an upcoming webinar on the topic and because I have a horse I’m currently riding called How Not…

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