Agency-Based Program Evaluation: Lessons from Practice

Stephen A. Kapp, MSW, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the University of  Kansas School of Social Welfare. Dr. Kapp has focused his career on agency-based program evaluation of children and family programs.  He has over twenty years of experience working both externally and internally on agency evaluations. His teaching and writing efforts have focused on evaluation with an emphasis on the use of information by agency staff and giving service recipients a voice in the evaluation process. Currently, he is managing research grants that examine the service experience of young offenders in the Kansas Mental Health System.

Gary R. Anderson, MSW, PhD, is the Director of the School of Social Work, College of Social Science, at Michigan State University. He came to Michigan State University from Hunter College, City University of New York (New York, New York). At Hunter, he was a Professor and the founding Director of the National Resource Center for Permanency Planning. Dr. Anderson has written a number of books and articles on policy and practice related to children and families. His most recent book, Widening the Circle: The Practice and Evaluation of Family Group Conferencing with Children, Youths, and Their Families, was just released by NASW Press. He is the Editor of the journal CHILD WELFARE. He has had over twenty funded projects addressing aspects of child welfare, and is currently leading projects on child welfare worker recruitment and retention, and research related to alternative dispute resolution strategies. He has just completed a three-year term as a board member of the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work, and serves on three journal editorial review boards. He received his PhD. from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, and MSW from the University of Michigan.