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The paper wants to explore, using the case of the PRIN, what criteria are most influential in the evaluation of proposals submitted for funding, in particular what is the relevance of the criteria related to the scientific quality of the proposal in itself (originality, methodological rigor etc.) than the quality of the proposing team, or alternative criteria of evaluation such as the impact expected of the research or the geographical location of the proposers. It is assumed that there is a difference between the quality criteria that scientists belonging to a scientific community say they use when they work as evaluators in the process of peer review, and the perception that scientists themselves have of the importance of scientific quality when they are objects of a process of evaluation. This difference is based on the existence of mechanisms distorting the peer review that: a) derive from the internal organizational characteristics of the scientific field; b) tend to become deeper when rules circumscribe the open debate of the reviewers and selection committees, and introduce the use of technical constraints (eg. methods and rating scales and decisions based on average scores) favouring the emergence of factors other than the scientific quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes a research work about evaluation of the acted and desired quality of professional activity within the school for foreigners of the multiethnic cultural center "La Tenda" in Milan. Competences useful for the professional development are the fulcrum of this evaluative research that has tried, not only to describe what implements the studied quality, but also to highlight the premises and consequences. In addition to the skills necessary for the professional mission, we therefore refer to the pre-requisites for carrying out the task: personal (eg: education), material (eg structural endowment) and intangible (eg: the ethical principles of the school). We refer to the facilitating elements and the consequent result that can be achieved by the work that the school teachers carry out (learning Italian and integrating with the new culture). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In line with a constructivist approach and a pratical participatory evaluation, the paper used brainstorming technique to define effectiveness' criteria of children adoption. 26 judges of the Juvenile Court of Bari took part in the evaluational brainstorming, which have been organized in a creative phase, a classification step and a final relevance analysis and group discussion. Applying the Lawshe formula, it has been possible identify the most shared success standards (children well-being: self-esteem, adjustment and secure attachment; adoptees' and parents' skill to revise their life story; adoptees' scholastic and social integration; a good parentsadoptees relationship) and failure ones (parents reject adoptees or adoptees abandon adoptive family). The study highlights suggestions regarding the flexible use of brainstorming technique and underlines the potentials to use a shared evaluation procedure in order to improve both adoption research and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In prevention and health promotion there is an increasing demand for evaluation: especially in times of economic crisis, programs, interventions, policies are asked to be based on substantial evidence of efficacy and effectiveness. Ministry and regions, to perform their governance role, need mechanisms to monitor and control, planning, directing and evaluating. This paper intends to propose some methodological reflections both for those evaluators who are going to apply to this specific area and to operators of prevention and health promotion that want to deal with problems of evaluation. This is not to achieve a final comprehensive presentation of method and techniques (perhaps impossible in a single paper) but to raise some questions and reflections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of economic appraisal of education and training systems under the light of the current economic and financial crisis and of the relevant "exit policy" strategies. On the basis of the literature on the Post World War II "economic miracles", the paper confirms that a careful evaluation of education and training systems can be a powerful tool to transit to the "post crisis" situation and to set a growth path. However, evaluation of human capital preparation through education and training cannot be disjoined from evaluation of human capital utilization- viz. of labor and retirement policies. The current practice is to follow different methodologies, techniques and procedures for evaluating human capital preparation, on the one hand, and human capital utilization, on the other. The paper outlines two possible strategies to define a unified evaluation methodology with pertinent techniques and procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a discussion over various evaluation approaches and criteria in the field of Development Co-operation by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by International Organizations such as FAO, IFAD and the European Commission (Europeaid). At the beginning the analysis considers the evolution of planning models based on resources supply (human, financial and material), and successively the paper focuses on models much more concerning the sustainable achievement of objectives and results, by means of participative approaches. Specific problems on the evaluation of development cooperation initiatives are presented; conclusions assess the necessities of a systematic utilization of the methods for the economic evaluation of investments which, at present, seem to be underemployed, especially by the Italian Development Co-operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to propose a reflection on specific learnings, arising from a cyclic evaluation of the same intervention. The proposed topic is the study of Placement of Vocational Training in Piedmont Region (IT), held from 2011 to 2014. Through a diachronic reading of the four annual reports of the Placement, are presented three dimensions of analysis: financial dynamics, employment outcomes and net impacts. This contribute aims to discuss learnings in terms of method and policy, starting by the main results emerging from the analysis of the three dimensions listed above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical inactivity has been linked with a number of chronic diseases affecting the population. Evidences arerising the concern and a number of nations have implemented policies promoting health increasing physical activity, using an interdisciplinary approach. New methodologies for assessing their efficacy have to consider the growing complexity and the multisectorial context of the setting. The purpose of this paper is to describe an evaluation project of physical activity promotion programs, which have been implemented in three different Italian regions: Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Autonomous Province of Trento. The evaluation process has been specially designed for each region, taking into consideration its aims and the local context of each promotion plan. The work involved the main stakeholders and was planned bearing in mind the importance of long-term sustaina-bility. It is here proposed as a contribution for developing efficient and sustainable methods and operational tools for the evaluation of health promotion programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the main characteristics of the Information System (SIS) of the cancer (breast, colorectal, cervical) screening programs (SP) in Italy. The SIS is organized in order to evaluate the quality and the effectiveness of the SP and is referred to different stakeholders and actors (national & local government, professionals, society) that can actually express different knowledge priorities. Different variables have been identified and annually collected by national surveys. The sources of data are the managing systems of the screening programs. The SIS produces several indicators, according to those identified by the European Guide Lines on quality assurance, which respond to the following evaluation and monitoring needs: * the SPis a path (disease management), not just performing a test; therefore we need to assess the quality of the whole path, and not only of the screening test performance; * the SPis directed to an asymptomatic population, hence it must take in account both the sensitivity and specificity * to evaluate the quality of the organization. The results of the evaluation are reported and/or summarized by different reporting system/tools in order to be used at different levels: service delivery, regional and national planning, governance assessment, generation of scientific evidence, accountability's purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribute describes the evaluation of the project "Genitori Più -- Campagna di promozione della salute nei primi anni di vita" (Parents Plus -- a health promotion campaign), developed during 2008-2009 in several Italian Regions. Genitori Più main objectives were to increase the knowledge and to change some behaviors in the health professionals working on birth path and in the parents, focusing on 7 determinants that have been proved important for the health of the babies. The evaluation followed the whole project with the constant implication of the project team using structured questionnaires. The evaluation surveys involved 5.961 health professionals and 5.819 parents, in particular mothers. In this paper we show how evaluation in health promotion can give to decision-makers several elements for re-thinking and adjusting the programs, using different evaluation strategy like longitudinal match over time or across different territories or across different strata of population. The evaluation showed how knowledge and behaviors are different in each territories involved in the project and between social classes, and showed much higher levels in the areas where the preventive intervention were more rooted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correct assessment of critical variables influencing public investment final outcome is often a crucial procedure, especially in cases where the dynamics of such variables cannot be controlled by public agents, because they mainly depend on choices and behaviors of other operators. This is a typical situation occurring in development project assessment, characterized by a high uncertainty degree and by a scarce availability of information in relation to the behaviour of aleatory variables influencing investment final outcome. In such cases, risk analysis by directly using Montecarlo method could be misleading: on the contrary, we think that such an evaluation should be preceded by uncertainty analysis, allowing to generate new useful information for subsequent risk assessment. In this context, the paper presents one possible evaluative pattern, especially suited for development projects assessment, allowing first to understand the leeways of uncertainty between which investment decision must be taken and, then, to estimate investment risk and to generate useful information to help Decision Maker defining the most suitable economic tools to mitigate it. The proposed evaluative pattern is composed by four steps, based on different techniques and sequentially articulated, so that each step generates new useful information for developing the following one. Such a scheme allows both to deepen the information produced by the evaluative process, and to guarantee more decisional transparency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]