The guidelines for a successful evaluation are to invest heavily in planning, integrate the evaluation into ongoing activities, participate and show staff that you (the manager) think the evaluation is important, involve staff as much and as early as possible, be realistic about the burden of an evaluation, and be aware of ethical and cultural issues. This manual is designed to help program managers follow these guidelines while planning and implementing a program evaluation. Each of the chapters addresses specific steps in the evaluation process and provides guidance on how to tailor an evaluation to a particular program's needs. After explaining why a program should be evaluated, the manual addresses the basic questions an evaluation can answer, what is involved in conducting an evaluation, and the cost of an evaluation. Other questions that are addressed are who should conduct the evaluation, how to hire and manage an outside evaluator, how to prepare for an evaluation, and what to include in an evaluation plan. Remaining chapters consider how to obtain the information needed, how to make sense of evaluation information, and how to report what was learned from the evaluation. A glossary, a list of 14 annotated resources, and a 50-item bibliography