Evaluation Research and Decision Guidance is designed to help people make better judgments and decisions when trying to reform, cure, or instruct anyone whose behavior or ignorance is a problem to themselves or to others. It will help those who work with delinquents, criminals, drug addicts, mentally ill persons, or the educationally deficient, to help them become more capable, self-controlled, and law-abiding individuals. It is a "how to" book, a guide for anyone concerned with evaluating the effectiveness of programs, predicting case outcomes, or allocating resources.
Glaser analyzes all types of evaluations. He shows how to define goals, measure the extent of their attainment, and assess costs in relation to benefits. He distinguishes routine from non-routine decision, tells how to predict outcomes more accurately in routine case prognoses, and how to estimate the probable consequences of alternative choices in unusual situations that occur infrequently. A chapter by Edna Erez discusses ethical and legal issues in program evaluation. Glaser's concluding chapter deals with how to institutionalize more rational policymaking.
The author offers numerous examples of evaluations and decision analyses in criminal justice, addiction treatment, mental health, and educational agencies to show how scientific evaluation methods have been successfully employed. Written without technical jargon, this guidebook will be essential to the policymaker and the practitioner, the student and the teacher.