EACH CHAPTER HAS DESCRIPTIVE ARTICLES THAT FOCUS ON THE MAJOR STEPS IN PLANNING OR CONDUCTING AN EVALUATION. EVALUATION STUDY PLANNING IS EXAMINED, WITH ATTENTION TO DEFINING EVALUATION RESEARCH, PRECONDITIONS FOR TESTING PROGRAMS, AND DEVELOPING EVALUABLE MODELS. AN OVERVIEW PROVIDES DIRECTION FOR PLANNING THE FORMAL EVALUATION STUDY. EVALUABILITY ASSESSMENT IS DESCRIBED AS A PROCEDURE WHICH ENTAILS THE ANALYSIS OF DOCUMENTS AND THE CONDUCTING OF INTERVIEWS IN ORDER TO DEPICT A MODEL OF THE PROGRAM IN QUESTION. THE USE OF FORMATIVE RESEARCH IN DETERMINING PROGRAM EVALUABILITY IS EXAMINED. FORMATIVE RESEARCH CAN BE CONDUCTED NOT ONLY TO IDENTIFY A PROGRAM'S OPERATION, THE PROBLEMS WHICH IT ADDRESSES, AND THE EFFECTS WHICH IT APPEARS TO PRODUCE BUT ALSO TO FACILITATE PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT. THE METHODOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FORMATIVE RESEARCH ARE DISCUSSED. PROBLEMS IN MEASUREMENT IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE ARE UNDERSCORED, WITH EMPHASIS ON THE PURPOSES OF MEASURING CHANGE AND THE COMMON PROBLEMS INVOLVED. A CASE EXAMPLE AT MINNESOTA RESTITUTION CENTER IS CITED. RANDOMIZED AND QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS IN EVALUATION RESEARCH ARE INTRODUCED. TYPES OF VALIDITY ARE IDENTIFIED, AND VALIDITY MAXIMIZATION, RANDOMIZED EXPERIMENTS, AND QUASI-EXPERIMENTS ARE DISCUSSED, WITH ATTENTION TO EXPERIMENT APPROXIMATIONS AND DATA ANALYSIS. PRELIMINARY DEFINITIONS AND ORGANIZATION, THE STANDARD FOR ESTIMATING EFFECT (NULL CONDITIONS), METHODS OF ANALYSIS, AND GENERAL STRATEGIES FOR ANALYSIS ARE PRESENTED. A PROCESS OF INNOVATION AND DISSEMINATION EXPERIMENTATION IS OUTLINED. THE ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL CHANGE MECHANISMS AND THE PROCESS OF DISSEMINATION INCLUDE SUGGESTIONS FOR INCREASING THE LIKELIHOOD OF UTILIZATION. INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR EVALUATION AND FEEDBACK IN MENTAL HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS ARE ADDRESSED. THE GENERAL CRITERIA AND SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS OF A CLINICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM AND SUGGESTIONS FOR MEETING SYSTEM CRITERIA ARE LISTED. THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ADMINISTRATIVE AND CLINICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS ARE DESCRIBED, AND A GENERAL MODEL FOR A SOFT DATA INFORMATION SYSTEM IS DETAILED. ASSESSING AN INFORMATION SYSTEM IS ALSO DISCUSSED. COST-BENEFIT EVALUATION IS EXAMINED, WITH ATTENTION TO ESTIMATION OF COST, AND BENEFITS AND CALCULATION OF THE COST-BENEFIT ESTIMATORS. GRAPHS RELATING TO EVALUABILITY ASSESSMENT ARE PRESENTED. REFERENCES ARE PROVIDED AT THE END OF EACH CHAPTER, AND AN INDEX IS INCLUDED.