Methodological Quality Standards for Evaluation Research
- Thousand Oaks : Sage Publications, May 2003
Evaluation studies vary in methodological quality. It is essential to develop methodological quality standars for evaluation research that can be understood and easily used by scholars, practitioners, policy makers, the mass media, and systematic reviews. This article proposes that such standards should be based on statisticl conclusion validity, internal validity, construct valitity, external validity, and descriptive validity. Methodological quality scales are reviwed, and it is argued that efforts should de made to improve them. Pawson and Tilley's challenge to the Campbell evaluation tradition is also assessed. It is concluded that this challenge does not have any implications for methological quality standars, because the Campbell tradition already emphasizes the need to study moderators and mediators in evaluation research