Discuss some of the reasons that evaluations are undertaken.
What will be an ideal response?
Evaluations are initiated for many reasons. They may be intended to help management improve a program; support advocacy by proponents or critics; gain knowledge about the program’s effects; provide input to decisions about the program’s funding, structure, or administration; or respond to political pressures. One of the first determinations the evaluator must make to identify the most relevant evaluation questions is the purpose of the evaluation. This is not always a simple matter. A statement of the purposes may accompany the request for an evaluation, but those announced purposes rarely tell the whole story and sometimes are only rhetorical. The evaluator often must dig deeper to determine who wants the evaluation, what they want and why they want it. There is no cut-and-dried method for doing this, but it is usually best to approach the task in a manner a journalist would dig out a story. The evaluator can examine source documents, interview key informants with different vantage points, and uncover pertinent history and background. Generally, the purposes of the evaluation will relate mainly to program improvement, accountability, or knowledge generation, but sometimes quite different motivations are in play.
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In the Griswold decision, Justice ____________ wrote: "The Constitution makers knew the need for change and provided for it. Amendments ... can be submitted to the people ... for ratification. That method of change was good enough for our Fathers, and being somewhat old-fashioned I must add that it is good enough for me."
a. William O. Douglas b. Earl Warren c. Felix Frankfurter d. Hugo Black
Which of the following scholars is associated with liberalism?
a. Immanuel Kant b. Alexander Wendt c. John Mearsheimer d. Thomas Hobbes e. Stephen Walt
Super PACs
A. were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2010. B. must officially coordinate their spending with the national political parties. C. can only be formed by independent citizens' groups, not corporations or unions. D. had a huge impact in funding elections in recent years. E. All of these answers are correct.
How is the presidential support score calculated?
a. by counting the number of presidential vetoes b. by surveying White House staff members c. by conducting public opinion polls d. by counting the times the president wins key votes in Congress