Description:
For social program practitioners, evaluators, funders, consultants, and advocates, this book contrasts two major evaluation approaches: Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) and realist evaluations.
Review Quotes:
This book is an intellectual tour de force. It is both erudite and very well-written, and I think it should be required reading in all social science graduate programs. Based on both experience and philosophy, it can definitely be helpful to the field of program evaluation.
--Kristin Anderson Moore, Ph.D.
Past President & Senior Scholar
Child Trends
Do We Really Know What Works? brilliantly integrates the author's personal intellectual journey with the development of the evaluation profession. It is especially relevant and timely as there appears to be a renewed interest in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which are reviewed in depth from a philosophical perspective with special attention paid to what they can and also can't deliver.
--Michael Q. Patton
Author of Utilization-Focused Evaluation