Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T02:01:12.697Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Evaluation and Problem Redefinition*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

David Dery
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem Visiting Associate Professor Graduate School of ManagementUniversity of California, Los Angeles

Abstract

Inadequate problem formulation leads to inadequate, alas persistent, solutions (programs). Program evaluation is commonly held as a means to put programs and policies to the test. The best of controlled experimentation, however, cannot serve as the ‘potential falsifier’ of problem formulation, only of the adequacy of means to solve a pre-conceptualized problem. An analysis of disadvantaged youth policy in Israel is provided to illustrate and support these contentions.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Amir, M. et al. (1969) ‘Truancy in primary education.’ The Szold Institute, Research Report No. 135 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Banfield, E. C. (1974) The Unheavenly City Revisited. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.Google Scholar
Biller, R. P. (1976) On tolerating policy and organizational termination: some design considerations, Policy Sciences, 7, 133–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaug, M. (1974) Education and the Employment Problems in Developing Countries. Geneva: ILO.Google Scholar
Brewer, G. (1974) The policy sciences emerge: to nurture and structure a discipline, Policy Sciences, 5, 239–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cervantes, F. L. (1969) The Dropout – Causes and Cures. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Cyert, R. M. and March, J. G., (1963) A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
P., Deleon (1978) A theory of policy termination. In May, J. V. and Wildavsky, A. B. (eds.) The Policy Cycle, Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Denney, H. A. (1974) Truancy and School Phobias. London: Prior Press.Google Scholar
Kilmann, H. R. and Mitroff, I. I. (1969) Problem defining and the consulting process, California Management Review, 21 (3) 2633.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, W. M. (1971) Street Gangs and Street Workers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Landau, M. (1973) On the concept of a self-correcting organization, Public Administration Review, 33, 533–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landau, S. and Haran, G. (1979) An attempt to evaluate the street-group method: preliminary findings, Megamot, 24, 484–96 (Hebrew).Google Scholar
Majone, G. (1980) Policies as theories, Omega, 8, 151–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Majone, G. and Wildavsky, A. (1978) Implementation as evolution. In Freeman, H. E., (ed.), Policy Studies Review Annual, Vol. 2, Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 103–17.Google Scholar
McCord, J. (1978) A thirty-year follow-up of treatment effects, American Psychologist, 03 1978, 284–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Labor (1976) Causes of Dropout Among Students in a Vocational Training Program (Hebrew).Google Scholar
A., Pearl (1963) Youth in lower class settings. In Sherif, M. and Sherif, C. (eds.), Problems of Youth, Chicago: Aldine, 89112.Google Scholar
Stinchcombe, A. L. (1964) Rebellion in a High School. Chicago: Quadrangle Books.Google Scholar
Trow, M. (1966) The second transformation of American secondary education. In Bendix, R. and Lipset, S. M. (eds.), Class Status and Power, Free Press.Google Scholar
Tyerman, M. J. (1968) Truancy. London: University of London Press.Google Scholar