Book Reviews 263

questions of the resource person. This book is, perhaps, most comparable to a recent work by Pietrazak et al. (1990).

Both texts offer solid guidance on how to conduct an evaluation, but the Smith book is shorter and less comprehensive. This book would make a good introduction to program evaluation for courses in planning, administration, and program development. In this context, its drawbacks would not be as critical and its brief treatment would be helpful. This book would also be useful for program people who were looking for an overview of evaluation prior to contacting an evaluation consultant. This book would also be a good preliminary treatment that could provide a foundation for further reading in evaluation. A final use for the book would be as a supplemental resource for a standard research methods course. Along that vein, research teachers might make good use of the examples and other materials that Smith makes available.

This is a worthwhile book. It will not make everyone happy, and there are definite shortcomings, but it represents a contribution to the literature in the way that it presents the essentials of evaluation research. If evaluation is to have the impact on programs and policies that it deserves, it will have to be understood and it will have to be used. Smith has given us a tool to help make that happen.

REFERENCES

McKillip, J. (1987). Needs Analysis: Tools for the Human Services and Education. Newbury Park: Sage Publications.

Pietrazak, J., Ramler, M., Rennet, T., Ford, L. and Gilbert, N. (1990). Practical Program Evaluation: Examples from Child Abuse Prevention. Newbury Park: Sage Publications.

Warhiet, G., Bell, R., and Schwab, J. (1977). Needs Assessment Approaches: Concepts and Methods. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

R.M. Jaeger. Statistics: A Spectator Sport (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1990, 402 pp.

R E V I E W E D BY: J A N I C E B L A C K

The purpose of this book is to provide "spectators" of research (i.e., non-researchers) a basic understanding of statistics so they may become intelligent and critical consumers of the research they encounter. The text is designed to explain statistical concepts normally taught in first year graduate programs in education, psychology, sociology, or political science. The author assumes the reader to have no previous exposure to statistics. In order to reduce the "math phobia" associated with the subject, he uses no formulas and very few computations in the book.

Janicc Black • Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Research at Virginia Tcch, 611 Clay St., Apt #6, Blacksburg, VA.

264 EVALUATION PRACTICE, 12(3), 1991

The focus of this work is entirely on understanding and interpreting statistics as they appear in journal articles, research reports, or evaluation reports. Each of the fifteen chapters concludes with four brief exercises for readers to test their understanding of the concepts presented. Also, the book concludes with a very practical glossary of statistical terms.

The fifteen chapters in this book are divided into three sections. Section one, covering chapters one through six, untangles the fundamentals of central tendency, variability, correlation, reliability, validity, and the design of research studies.

Chapter one explains raw scores, ranks, frequency distributions, stem and leaf plots, histograms, box and whisker charts, frequency polygons, pie charts, the normal curve, and skewed distributions. A short Chapter Two discusses the mean, median, mode, and levels of measurement.

Chapter Three details measures of variability. This chapter describes the range, interquartile range, semi-interquartile range, variance, and standard deviation. It concludes with a set of guidelines to use in deciding which measure of variability is the right statistic for the situation.

Correlation coefficients are the subject of Chapter Four. The major emphasis here is on the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. The Spearman rank-order, biserial, point biserial, phi, and tetrachoric correlation coefficients are introduced in a two-page section at the end of that chapter.

The fundamentals of measurement are the spotlight of Chapter Five. The author introduces the idea of constructs and enumerates concepts associated with assessing validity and reliability. He concludes this chapter with a solid section on reporting and interpreting standard scores from a variety of scales popular in educational literature.

Chapter Six scrutinizes the notions of internal and external validity and basic research designs. This chapter is titled "Can You Trust The Conclusions" and encourages readers to critically review research reports. A compact chart is presented that examines the threats to internal validity, control methods for each type of threat, and techniques for detecting the operation of each threat.

Chapters Seven through Nine comprise the second section of the book and address hypothesis testing. The discussions in Chapter Seven center on going beyond the numbers to make decisions. This chapter is extremely brief and introduces vocabulary pertinent to hypothesis testing.

Chapter Eight explains random sampling, normal distributions, and confidence intervals. A succinct chart highlights the process of estimation beginning with "defining the population" and ending with "estimating population parameters with sample statistics." The logic of hypothesis testing is the subject of Chapter Nine. Here the general procedure for hypothesis testing is out lined and Type I and Type II errors are explained. Each of these two chapters closes with two examples containing statistical information usually found in research or evaluation reports. Readers are asked to review examples and answer questions to test their grasp of the material.

The third section of the text, which includes Chapters Ten through Fifteen, examines various statistical testing techniques and provides examples of their use from recent journal articles. The format of these chapters is the same. Each chapter begins with a brief overview of the essentials related to that particular statistical test. Then,

Book Reviews 265

three actual research or evaluation studies utilizing that technique are summarized by detailing the purpose of the study, the research design, the original author's interpre- tation of the results, the nature of the inferences, and Jaeger's interpretation of the results.

Chapters Ten through Fourteen are each devoted to one statistical technique. Chapter Ten examines t-tests; Eleven discusses correlations; Twelve probes chi square; Thirteen explains one way ANOVAs; and Fourteen illustrates two way ANOVAs. Chapter Fifteen deviates from the format of one technique per chapter by covering three advanced techniques: analysis of covariance, multiple regression, and factor analysis. One example is highlighted for each of these techniques in the same format as the previous chapters.

This is a very basic statistics book. It is aimed at non-researchers unfamiliar with statistical terminology and methods. To this end, Jaeger does a satisfactory job in fulfilling the stated objective of the book which is to provide a base understanding of statistics for non-researchers so they may be more intelligent and critically thoughtful consumers of research. It is questionable whether the approach adopted in this text will produce the intended results. Reading, interpreting, and understanding statistical information from research and evaluation reports without any computational back- ground would seem to limit the consumers' ability to make astute judgments concern- ing the research.

The book is extremely easy to read and the examples are easy to follow. Every effort is made to make statistics seem enjoyable, usable, and less intimidating. However, visuals are sparse in the text and the book could be improved by more and better graphics. Researchers involved in evaluation practice will find this book too simple for their needs.

J. Fox and J. S. Long (Eds.). Modern Methods of Data Analysis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1990, 446 pp.

R E V I E W E D BY: J A N I C E B L A C K

The major themes of the ten chapters of this text are graphical analysis of data, regression diagnostics, and missing data. The authors aspire to provoke practitioners to examine their quantitative data from a variety of vantage points and to question how well the data fit the assumptions of the statistical tests employed. This text would make an excellent reference for specific data analysis problems, particularly related to regression. The emphasis on graphical analysis of data and the relationship to test

JanJce Black • Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Research at Virginia Tcch, 611 Clay St., Apt #6, Blacksburg, VA 24060.