Social Construction of Reality - Bad Request

experience. The topic for this case study was selected in the hope that the result would
inform The School District’s policy and methods regarding program evaluation. This case
study was differentiated from other research in that it was developed via The School
District’s unique paradigm. This was accomplished using Utilization-Focused Evaluation
(UFE) principles (Patton, 1997) to provide the basis for the evaluation of The School
District’s program evaluation model. The UFE paradigm suggests that for evaluations to
be useful, and thus utilized, stakeholders must be involved as much as possible with all
facets of the evaluation. Utilization-Focused Evaluation involves the primary intended
users in the selection of the most significant content, methods, theory, and applications
based upon contextual reality.
The UFE was initiated via an interview (Appendix D) of the primary intended
user, the superintendent, to determine the specific direction of the study and the
program’s greatest need. Questions were framed in terms of vision and anticipated
outcomes to allow for rich, thick description as recommended by Merriam (1998). In
keeping with the UFE paradigm (Patton, 1997), questions for the interviews with other
stakeholders (Appendix E) emerged from this opening encounter. The other stakeholders
for this study were identified as the Superintendent’s Cabinet, which includes the eight
district administrators who lead the district’s services: Curriculum, Instruction, and
Assessment; Elementary Education; Secondary Education; Human Resources;
Community Relations; Finance; Special Education; and Technology and Operations.
This study was based upon qualitative data. The qualitative data came from
current and archival sources. Content analysis was performed on federal, state, and local
documents; data were reduced using an affinity diagram. Data from The School District’s
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