The World Health Organization (WHO) defines equity as the absence of preventable or remediable disparities among various groups of individuals, regardless of how these groups are delineated, whether by social, economic, demographic or geographic factors. The goal of equity is to eliminate the unfair and avoidable circumstances that deprive people of their rights. Therefore, inequities generally arise when certain population groups are unfairly deprived of basic resources that are made available to other groups. A disparity is ‘unfair’ or ‘unjust’ when its cause is due to the social context rather than biological factors. Equitable evaluation contends that conducting evaluation practices with an equity approach is more powerful, as evaluation is used as a tool for advancing equity. It emphasises that context, culture, history, and beliefs shape the nature of evaluations, specifically in the diverse and often complex African reality. Equitable evaluation can render power to the powerless, offer a voice to the silenced and give presence to those treated as invisible. Evidence from various sources shows that inequality is prevalent on the African continent, hence the need to focus on evaluative solutions that address the structural issues that contribute to the different forms of inequality, such as economic, political and social inequality. Despite a plethora of development interventions on the African continent, a large proportion of the population on the continent is still lacking access to basic goods and services for survival. The effectiveness of developmental programmes in sub-Saharan Africa has been elusive, to the extent that minimal inroads have been made in addressing key challenges such as poverty, inequality and the effects of climate change. This scholarly book aims to invigorate academic discussions surrounding developmental programmes, with the goal of generating insights that can be utilised by evaluation commissioners and decision-makers to help address inequality and promote a more equitable society in Africa through improved evaluation processes.

Governments and organizations of all shapes and sizes espouse values of equity and social justice. Yet, there are many examples of unfair social arrangements and employment conditions, dysfunctional government practices, and growing income inequality in both developed and developing countries worldwide. The profession and transdiscipline of evaluation is well equipped to address issues of inequality and social injustice, but until recently has been much more focused on primary stakeholder and donor satisfaction (being as useful as possible to funders of interventions and evaluations) and accountability concerns. The authors in this volume challenge the field of evaluation to become more concerned about using evaluation to develop more equitable organizations, governments, and societies. Leading evaluation theorists and practitioners including Michael Scriven, Jennifer Greene, Thomas Schwandt, Emily Gates, Sandra Mathison, Karen Kirkhart, Saville Kushner, Lois-Ellin Datta, Ernest House, Robert Stake, Patricia Rogers, Robert Picciotto and Stewart Donaldson, provide a range of visions for how evaluation can play a much larger role in facilitating social justice across the globe. Evaluation for an Equitable Society will be of great interest to evaluation practitioners, students and scholars. It will be of interest to those teaching and taking introductory evaluation courses, as well as advanced courses focused on improving evaluation theory and practice.

Take a journey to 2030 where Visionary Evaluatives abound and link with one another in actively bringing about a sustainable, equitable future. Utilizing a creative storytelling approach, Visionary Evaluation for a Sustainable, Equitable Future brings forward the centrality of values in conjunction with the role of evaluation in building a future of well-being for people, nature, and planet. Visionary Evaluatives are guided by six principles. Those principles highlight a commitment to equity and the sustainability of nature as core values. They emphasize an orientation of humility, compassion, and transparency as Visionary Evaluatives engage with others in a world of living, entangled systems with both obvious and hidden intersectionalities. They require Visionary Evaluatives to engage in deep praxis—mindful and challenging reflection on what is being learned through the intersection of values, iterative action and inquiry, theory, outcomes, and vision. A diverse group of chapter authors share their wisdom through envisioning 2030 and what it might mean to move in the world applying aspects of the Visionary Evaluative Principles. Through Visionary Evaluation for a Sustainable, Equitable Future, you will learn about how you can contribute to a sustainable, equitable future not only in evaluations, as either users or practitioners, but also in your daily actions and lives. Praise for Visionary Evaluation for a Sustainable, Equitable Future What might the world be like if it was inhabited by people imbued with evaluation? Here's a very interesting exploration of such a world. And it will additionally enrich your thinking about how to vote in 2020. Michael Scriven Founder, Faster Forward Fund The core values and principles of visionary evaluatives read too good to be true: envisioning a world of humility, sustainability, equity, compassion, respect, understanding, and engaging deeply, toward iterative action. What a tall order and request this book is making for those of us in the field of evaluation! Bravo to the authors for pushing us. Their book is compelling and futuristic, written as a story that helps us imagine and re-image our field, our lives, and our world. Rodney Hopson Professor, University of Illinois—Urbana Champaign A fascinating journey into the future. The heroes, “Visionary Evaluatives", catalyze forces including the UN Sustainable Development Goals movement. In their innovative blending of evaluation designs and daily living habits, the heroes demonstrate the strong beliefs in the value of the sustainability of the planet and equity for all its inhabitants. Deborah Rugg President, Evaluation Consultants LLC; Former Chair, UN Evaluation Group Humanity's current trajectory on Earth is unsustainable. Transformation is needed at every level and in every arena of action. The alternative may be no future at all. This book and its Visionary Evaluation Principles envisions evaluation as part of the transformation. Embrace the vision. Act on it. How? Start by reading Visionary Evaluation. Michael Quinn Patton Author of Blue Marble Evaluation

This book contains the suite of protocols for the equitable evaluation of marine energy converters (based on either tidal or wave energy) produced by the EquiMar consortium led by the University of Edinburgh. These protocols aim to harmonise testing and evaluation procedures across the wide variety of devices presently available with the aim of accelerating adoption though technology matching and improved understanding of the environmental and economic impacts associated with the deployment of arrays of devices. EquiMar will assess devices through a suite of protocols covering site selection, device engineering design, the scaling up of designs, the deployment of arrays of devices, the environmental impact, in terms of both biological & coastal processes, and economic issues. The series of protocols has been developed through a robust, auditable process and we hope they will provide a firm foundation for project developers, consenting agencies, project funders and technology developers to evaluate concepts.

"Joe Feldman shows us how we can use grading to help students become the leaders of their own learning and lift the veil on how to succeed. . . . This must-have book will help teachers learn to implement improved, equity-focused grading for impact." —Zaretta Hammond, Author of Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain Crack open the grading conversation Here at last—and none too soon—is a resource that delivers the research base, tools, and courage to tackle one of the most challenging and emotionally charged conversations in today’s schools: our inconsistent grading practices and the ways they can inadvertently perpetuate the achievement and opportunity gaps among our students. With Grading for Equity, Joe Feldman cuts to the core of the conversation, revealing how grading practices that are accurate, bias-resistant, and motivational will improve learning, minimize grade inflation, reduce failure rates, and become a lever for creating stronger teacher-student relationships and more caring classrooms. Essential reading for schoolwide and individual book study or for student advocates, Grading for Equity provides A critical historical backdrop, describing how our inherited system of grading was originally set up as a sorting mechanism to provide or deny opportunity, control students, and endorse a "fixed mindset" about students’ academic potential—practices that are still in place a century later A summary of the research on motivation and equitable teaching and learning, establishing a rock-solid foundation and a "true north" orientation toward equitable grading practices Specific grading practices that are more equitable, along with teacher examples, strategies to solve common hiccups and concerns, and evidence of effectiveness Reflection tools for facilitating individual or group engagement and understanding As Joe writes, "Grading practices are a mirror not just for students, but for us as their teachers." Each one of us should start by asking, "What do my grading practices say about who I am and what I believe?" Then, let’s make the choice to do things differently . . . with Grading for Equity as a dog-eared reference.

Is South-South Cooperation (SSC) any different from other international partnerships in practice? While straightforward, this question often gets lost in conventional scholarship on SSC and international cooperation, which privileges macro-level narratives of how cooperation mechanisms fit within geopolitical concerns and shape the outcomes of foreign aid. Equity, Evaluation, and International Cooperation instead offers an answer from the ground up. It highlights two main lessons from the close examination of the ecosystem of international cooperation projects in the urban water-and-sanitation sector in Maputo, Mozambique. First, the book shows that macro labels attributed to international cooperation reflect very little about how cooperation projects operate on the ground and the equity consequences of their work. Second, how projects are designed, implemented, and evaluated does matter to the quality of learning that emanates from partnerships. Beyond the geopolitical and technical proximities favored by the SSC discourse, this book argues that what matters in practice is whether hierarchy or heterarchy is institutionalized in the governance of cooperation projects; whether project partners are locally embedded in shared work spaces; and whether practitioners value flexibility and recognize the epistemic value of learning from all partners as peers. A strong evaluation culture within the international development industry, however, still subjugates such equity-based concerns and deep learning in projects to accountability, reinforcing orthodox power asymmetries in cooperation and sustaining epistemic and distributive injustice. This book instead provides a framework for how project evaluations, as a key narrative instrument of development, can instead promote distributive, procedural, and epistemic justice in international cooperation projects.

The field of TESOL encompasses English teachers who teach English as an additional language in English-dominant countries and those teachers who teach English as a foreign language in countries where a language other than English is the official language. This range of educators teaches English to children, adolescents, and adults in primary, secondary, post-secondary, popular education, and language academies or tutoring centers. The diversity of learners and contexts within the TESOL field presents a unique opportunity for educators to address varied educational and societal needs. This opportunity calls for TESOL educators who can support the whole learner in a range of contexts for the greater social good. There is an urgent need for readily reproducible and step-by-step research-based practices and current standards in TESOL that bridge the gap between critical scholarship and equitable teaching practices. This book would serve as a critical addition to current literature in TESOL. TESOL Guide for Critical Praxis in Teaching, Inquiry, and Advocacy is an essential reference that provides practical and equitable step-by-step guides for TESOL educators through the current best practices and methods for effective and equity-minded teaching, critical inquiry, and transformative advocacy. This book is of particular value as it bridges theories to practices with a critical look at racial and social justice in English language teaching, which will lead to the integration of social justice-focused practice across the new curriculum. Covering topics such as integrated language instruction, equity and inclusivity, critical consciousness, and online learning, this text is essential for in-service and pre-service TESOL educators, education students, researchers, administrators, teacher educators, and academicians.