Social Work Evaluation

Social workers are increasingly faced with the demands of evaluating their own programs and practice to maintain accountability to funding agencies, secure funding, and remedy a number of social problems facing our society. One of the nine basic competencies required by the social work accreditation agency is to be able to conduct evaluations. Evaluation is a critical area of practice for demonstrating accountability to clients, communities, numerous otherstakeholders, and funding and regulatory agencies.Social Work Evaluation, Third Edition, offers a straightforward guide to a broad range of social work evaluations at both the program and practice levels. Author James R. Dudley's seven-step approach to evaluation makes use of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed research methods to provide oversight and address important issues at the planning, implementation, and outcome stages of a program or practice intervention. His unique focus on involving clients in the evaluation processensures that social workers consistently improve their capacity to impact their clients' well-being and remain accountable to them and others they serve. Case examples from the extensive evaluation experience of the author and others illustrate a wide range of logic-based methods discussed throughout the text forreal-world application. This comprehensive text effectively aims to enhance student and practitioner skill sets to meet these demands of a changing field.

Dr. James Dudley offers a succinct and focused approach to helping students understand evaluation practice in social work. I can see in each chapter the author's obvious deep commitment to social work evaluation and social work education. -David P. Moxley, University of Alaska Anchorage, The book is chock full of interesting and relevant case examples which bring life to the learning process. A good resource for both agency administrators and practitioners. -Michael Cronin, Monmouth University

James R. Dudley, Ph.D., MSW, LCSW, Professor Emeritus, School of Social Work, College of Health and Human Services, University of North Carolina at Charlotte