Program Evaluation in Social Work
Exam Materials
Course Introduction
This course introduces students to the theories, methods, and practical applications of program evaluation within the field of social work. Emphasizing both quantitative and qualitative approaches, the course covers the design, implementation, and analysis of evaluations for social service programs. Key topics include needs assessment, formative and summative evaluation, process and outcome evaluation, ethical considerations, stakeholder engagement, and the use of evaluation findings to inform practice and policy. Students develop skills in selecting appropriate evaluation models, collecting and analyzing data, and reporting results to diverse audiences, preparing them to assess the effectiveness and impact of interventions in a variety of social work settings.
Recommended Textbook
Essential Research Methods for Social Work 4th Edition by Allen Rubin
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Chapter 1: Why Study Research?
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Sample Questions
Q1) Our attempts to learn about the world we live in come from
A)direct experience.
B)tradition.
C)direct, personal inquiry.
D)authority.
E)All of these.
Answer: E
Q2) If a research study gets published practitioners can be guided by just reading its conclusions; there is no need to read the technical aspects of the study's research methods.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) Tradition and authority can be useful sources of knowledge,but relying on them exclusively can be risky.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 2: Evidence-Based Practice: The Research Process
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Q1) Which of the following statements is correct about evidence-based practice?
A)It is mainly a cost cutting tool.
B)It does not allow room for practitioner expertise to overrule the best evidence.
C)It calls for practitioners to make practice decisions based on the integration of their practice expertise, their knowledge of client attributes, and the best research evidence.
D)It has only two stages.
Answer: C
Q2) Evidence-based practice implies career-long learning.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) The top-down and bottom-up approaches to searching for evidence are mutually exclusive.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 3: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods of Inquiry
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Q1) The key feature of the social justice mixed methods design is the requirement that qualitative inquiry must precede quantitative inquiry.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) When we want to verify whether a cause produces an effect in general,we are more likely to use quantitative methods.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Which of the following statements is true about the phases of the research process in mixed methods studies?
A)The problem formulation phase comes first.
B)The problem formulation phase comes third.
C)The first phase is designing the study.
D)None of these.
Answer: A
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Chapter 4: Factors Influencing the Research Process
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Sample Questions
Q1) Although cultural competence is important in social work practice,it is NOT important in social work research.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following illustrates the use of the inductive method?
A)hypothesis, observations, accept or reject hypothesis.
B)observations, pattern finding, and generalizations.
C)theory, hypothesis, observations, generalizations.
D)theory, observations, and generalizations.
E)generalizations, theory, and observations.
Q3) Descriptive research answers the question "what's so" and explanatory research answers the question "why."
A)True
B)False
Q4) Mary chronicles people's attitudes toward an upcoming poverty program.Mary is doing explanatory research.
A)True
B)False
Q5) How are theory and research linked? Give examples.
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Chapter 5: Ethical Issues in Social Work Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) What ethical guideline(s)is are violated in the following study? A child therapist thinks the new,untested psychotherapy she recently developed is more effective than physician-prescribed medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.To research the effectiveness of her therapy,she tells parents that the therapy replaces the need for the medications and then provides the therapy to half of her clients,without telling parents about the study or which treatment group their child is in.
A)voluntary participation and informed consent.
B)no harm to the participant.
C)deceiving subjects.
D)all of these.
Q2) When names are removed from questionnaires and are replaced with identification numbers so that only the researcher can later link a response to a name,the researcher should tell the respondent that the information is
A)anonymous.
B)confidential.
C)anonymous and confidential.
D)harmless.
Q3) Illustrate how ethics and politics can affect social work research.
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Chapter 6: Culturally Competent Research
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Q1) If research participants from two different cultures have the same average score on a scale measuring caregiver burden,that means that the two groups of participants subjectively perceive the same degree of caregiver burden.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Recruitment of minority and oppressed populations in research studies can be enhanced by:
A)providing transportation to the research site.
B)conducting research activities in participants' homes.
C)providing childcare for young children
D)all of these.
Q3) Compensation for participants in research should
A)be as large as your budget permits.
B)be large enough to provide an incentive yet not so large that it becomes coercive.
C)always be in the form of money.
D)never be in the form of money.
Q4) Cultural competence should NOT affect how research findings are interpreted.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 7: Problem Formulation
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Q1) Which of the following statements is NOT true if you include only women in a study of a hypothesis:
A)You rule out any effect that gender might have on the two variables under study.
B)Gender is a third variable in the study.
C)Female is a constant in the study.
D)You are controlling for the effects of gender.
Q2) Number of children is an example of a variable at the ratio level of measurement.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A study tests the hypothesis that the provision of social work intervention will reduce the school dropout rate.It finds that social work intervention reduces the dropout rate only of children whose families are experiencing high levels of family stress.In this study,what type of variable is "level of family stress"?
A)independent variable.
B)dependent variable.
C)moderating variable.
D)mediating variable.
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Chapter 8: Measurement in Quantitative and Qualitative Inquiry
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Q1) Which of the following statements is/are true about reliability and validity in qualitative research?
A)Standardized scales whose reliability and validity are known to be high would NOT be relied upon as the prime measures.
B)Akin to inter-observer reliability in quantitative studies, one might assess whether two independent raters arrive at the same interpretation from the same mass of written qualitative field notes.
C)Reliability might be assessed by asking subjects whether the researcher's interpretations ring true and are meaningful to them.
D)All of these are true about reliability and validity in qualitative research.
E)None of these is true about reliability and validity in qualitative research.
Q2) An interview with someone with a limited vocabulary who therefore does not understand the questions being asked is likely to produce
A)systematic error.
B)random error.
C)unreliable data.
D)both random error and unreliable data
Q3) Describe how qualitative studies attempt to deal with reliability and validity.
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Chapter 9: Quantitative and Qualitative Measurement Instruments
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Sample Questions
Q1) Construct a brief Likert-type scale to measure attitudes about an issue of interest to you.
Q2) Which of the following statements is/are true about questionnaires?
A)Researchers can avoid the need for pretesting if they are very careful in the way they word questions.
B)Because it is virtually impossible to avoid some mistakes in wording, questionnaires should be pretested in a dry run.
C)When pretesting, the pretest sample should be very large.
D)When pretesting your questionnaire, it's better to ask people to read through it looking for errors rather than to complete the questionnaire.
Q3) Construct an examples that would violate each of the following guidelines for asking questions:
Make items clear
Avoid double-barreled questions
Avoid biased items and terms
Q4) Open-ended qualitative interviews never use standardized interview schedules. A)True B)False
Q5) How does qualitative interviewing differ from quantitative interviewing?
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Chapter 10: Surveys
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Sample Questions
Q1) In contrast to interviews,self-administered questionnaires have the advantage of
A)being more effective in dealing with complicated issues.
B)producing fewer incomplete questions.
C)dealing with the context of social life.
D)handling sensitive issues more effectively.
Q2) Which of the following is NOT a disadvantage of the community survey or target group survey approach to needs assessment?
A)It is one of the least direct ways to assess needs.
B)possibly low response rates.
C)measurement biases.
D)time and expense.
Q3) When asking questionnaire items,the interviewer should
A)ask every question even if the respondent has apparently answered it already.
B)skip questions that the respondent cannot answer and return to them at the end of the interview.
C)react to a question after the respondent has answered to show interest
D)give help on difficult questions.
E)summarize the respondent's answers so that they are more meaningful answers.
Q4) Give a comparative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of survey research.
Q5) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of online surveys.
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Chapter 11: Sampling: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches
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Q1) You want to draw a representative sample of social workers employed in domestic violence programs.You have a list of all such programs,but not of their staff members.Your survey will involve face-to-face interviews,and your travel budget is limited to visiting 10 cities.What kind of sampling design would you use?
A)simple random sampling.
B)quota sampling.
C)multistage cluster sampling.
D)stratified sampling.
E)available sampling.
Q2) Compare probability designs with nonprobability designs.Identify the kinds of sampling designs available within each of these major categories.Explain a situation in which it would be more appropriate to use probability sampling and one in which nonprobability sampling would be preferred.
Q3) Every kth element in a list is chosen for inclusion in the sample in
A)simple random sampling.
B)systematic sampling.
C)disproportionate sampling.
D)cluster sampling.
E)stratified sampling.
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Chapter 12: Experiments and Quasi-Experiments
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Sample Questions
Q1) An instrumentation effect occurs when
A)the instrument employed for the pretest has an effect that shows up on the posttest.
B)the measurement instrument is changed from the pretest to the posttest.
C)there is a change on the dependent variable from the pretest score to the posttest score.
D)all of these.
Q2) Suppose a new social casework program is offered to students with high levels of truancy.If those students placed in the program by their families have significantly less truancy after participating than the students who did not participate in the program,then we can conclude that
A)the program effectively reduces truancy.
B)a selection bias might explain away the difference.
C)causality cannot be inferred because of the lack of covariation.
D)some clients benefited, so the program has value.
Q3) The effectiveness of randomization in experimentation is affected by the number of participants involved.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: Single Case Evaluation Designs
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Sample Questions
Q1) The ability to construct a retrospective baseline is one of the advantages of using available records.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Suppose you instruct a couple to have a typical conversation while you observe them in your office.This would be an example of
A)unobtrusive observation.
B)research reactivity.
C)obtrusive observation.
D)interval recording.
Q3) Discuss why it can be argued that a single-case AB design,if done appropriately,has greater internal validity than a simple pretest/posttest group design (with no control group).
Q4) In deciding what to measure in a single-case experiment,it is usually best to A)pick something implied by how the clinical goal was operationally defined.
B)measure more than one thing.
C)choose a behavior that is more frequent over one that occurs very rarely.
D)all of these.
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Chapter 14: Program Evaluation
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Sample Questions
Q1) The best way to avoid contaminating the control condition is to locate the experimental and control conditions in the same building
A)True
B)False
Q2) Recommendations to maximize compliance with the case assignment protocol in experiments or quasi-experiments include
A)having agency staff implement the case assignment decisions.
B)NOT explaining to agency staff the purpose and nature of the case assignment protocol.
C)pilot testing the randomization procedure in the agency.
D)assigning control of the case assignment protocol to multiple agency staff members.
Q3) In-house evaluators,as compared to external evaluators,are likely to have
A)greater access to program information and personnel.
B)more knowledge about program processes.
C)less independence from agency administrators.
D)all of these.
Q4) What are the special problems that program evaluators encounter that other types of researchers are less likely to encounter?
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Chapter 15: Additional Methods in Qualitative Inquiry
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Q1) Which of the following is a social constructivist standard for appraising the trustworthiness of qualitative research?
A)Member checking
B)Evoke action for the distribution of power
C)Prolonged engagement
D)Negative case analysis
Q2) Which of the following contemporary positivist strategies is recommended for enhancing the rigor of qualitative studies?
A)Prolonged engagement
B)Triangulation.
C)Negative case analysis.
D)Leaving a paper trail for auditing.
E)All of these.
Q3) The qualitative researcher in the role of participant-as-observer participates fully with the group under study but does not disclose his or her role as researcher.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Describe how grounded theory uses constant comparisons.
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Chapter 16: Analyzing Available Records: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
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Q1) An ideal type is a conceptual model composed of the essential characteristics of social phenomena.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Secondary analysis refers to the analysis of data collected by another researcher for a purpose similar to your research interests.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Professor Jenner was interested in using Census Bureau data to examine the trend in unemployment rates in the United States.However,Jenner's definition of unemployment did not match the one used by the Census Bureau.Jenner was dealing with the issue of
A)reliability.
B)validity.
C)the ecological fallacy.
D)ideal types.
E)verstehen.
Q4) Describe the dangers to keep in mind when using secondary sources in historical research.Discuss how you would attempt to protect against these dangers.
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Chapter 17: Quantitative Data Analysis
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Sample Questions
Q1) The table shows that regardless of type of illness,recipients of social work services were more likely to die in the hospital.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The proportion of 100 released prisoners who get rearrested within three years is 24 percent for the 50 who attended a bible studies program in prison and 30 percent for the 50 who did not attend.Does this mean that prisoners who attend bible studies programs are less likely to get arrested within three years than those who do not attend? Explain your answer on statistical grounds.
Q3) Your colleague conducts a methodologically flawless randomized experiment with a small sample and finds that 70 percent of the clients treated with intervention A had a successful outcome,while only 60 percent of the clients in the control group had a successful outcome.Based on the difference in these percentages,she concludes that intervention A is effective.Would you agree with her? Explain your answer.
Q4) Explain the difference between statistical significance,relationship strength,and substantive significance.
Q5) Define and explain how to calculate odds ratios and risk ratios.
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Chapter 18: Qualitative Data Analysis
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Sample Questions
Q1) Qualitative researchers seek to discover patterns by using:
A)the grounded theory method.
B)semiotics
C)conversation analysis.
D)concept mapping.
E)All of these.
Q2) Professor Wang is interested in looking at the grandparent - grandchild relationship.Wang wonders whether grandparents assume different roles when providing care to grandchildren.That is,are some grandparents very distant from the grandchildren while others become surrogate parents? According to the Lofland's scheme,Wang is focusing on:
A)Frequencies
B)Causes
C)Processes
D)Structures
E)Magnitudes
Q3) Qualitative analysis is primarily numerical.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Describe the open coding process.
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