James C Mcdavid
Biographic Data
| ID | 1493465 |
|---|---|
| NAME | James C Mcdavid |
| GIVEN NAMES | James C |
| FAMILY NAME | Mcdavid |
| SIGNATURE | MCDAVID J C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Victoria |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 58 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1974 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Planetary health
Addressing current environmental, social, health, and democratic challenges requires projects and evaluations to be conceptualized differently. This article proposes a pathway to creating rapid impact assessment tools that consider the dimensions that matter the most to ensure positive impacts for a thriving future. This work is based on three premises for evaluation practice, which needs to: contribute to a positive ecosystem, adopt a holistic p…
Offering Graduate Evaluation Degrees Online
This practice note describes and explores the experiences and lessons learned as we engaged learners in two online graduate evaluation programs: the University of Victoria’s Graduate Certificate and Diploma in Evaluation Program, offered since fall 2011, and Carleton University’s Graduate Diploma in Public Policy and Program Evaluation (DPPPE), offered online since fall 2016. Both programs are delivered to maximize the geographic accessibility of…
Reflections on Inter-University Collaboration to Deliver a Graduate Certificate in Evaluation to Government of the Northwest Territories Employees
This practice note describes and reflects on an inter-university collaboration to deliver a graduate credential in evaluation to Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) staff. The collaboration involved faculty members from two member institutions of the Consortium of Universities for Evaluation Education (CUEE). We describe the process of negotiating a contractual agreement, developing and delivering the program, and offer our reflections…
Evaluation in the Provinces and Territories
Evidence-based decision-making and managing for results are terms often heard from politicians and senior government officials at both federal and provincial levels of government in Canada. But, while there is some level of understanding at the federal level in terms of the role and use of evaluation in measuring results, there is significantly less information readily available about the extent to which evaluation is being used at other levels o…
Comparison of Canadian and American Graduate Evaluation Education Programs
University education in evaluation is an important support for the professionalization of the field. Using internet sources and direct contacts with 105 Canadian university departments, our study develops a Canada-wide inventory of graduate courses and programs, with emphasis on evaluation. Comparisons are made with inventories of American graduate evaluation programs undertaken between 1980 and 2018. Although Canada has about half as many multi-…
Contribution Analysis
Contribution analysis (CA) is a theory-based approach that has become widely used in recent years to conduct defensible evaluations of interventions for which determining attribution using existing methodologies can be problematic. This critical review of the literature explores contribution analysis in detail, discussing its methods, the evolution in its epistemological underpinnings to establishing causality, and some methodological challenges …
Professional Standards for Evaluators
The National Council of the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) recognized a need to designate a professional status for the practice of evaluation for individuals who meet appropriate criteria. A consortium of experienced CES members developed an Action Plan with policy options based on (a) a literature review, (b) consultations with relevant professional organizations, (c) knowledge and experience brought by consortium members, and (d) the 2005 S…
Legislator Uses of Public Performance Reports
A key assumption in efforts to implement and improve cross-government public reporting systems is that legislators will make use of the performance information to enhance accountability and improve program and policy effectiveness. This five-year study is an assessment of expectations and actual uses of annual performance reports by elected decision-makers in British Columbia, Canada. Our findings from three anonymous surveys indicate that while …
Joining public accountability and performance management
This article presents an in-depth assessment of how performance measurement, public reporting, and internal performance management have been merged in Lethbridge, Alberta. Business-unit managers and council members both share the view that performance measurement and reporting are useful and that performance information is credible. This finding contrasts with the more general view that performance information is not used much, despite widespread…
The Lay of the Land
A group of 12 evaluation practitioners and observers takes stock of the state of program evaluation in Canada. Each contributor provides a personal viewpoint, based on his or her own experience in the field. The selection of contributors constitutes a purposive sample aimed at providing depth of view and a variety of perspectives. Each presentation highlights one strength of program evaluation practiced in Canada, one weakness, one threat, and on…
A cross‐Canada analysis of the efficiency of residential recycling services
The primary purpose of this article is to investigate the factors that predict the efficiency of residential recycling collection services in Canadian local governments. The findings are based on a survey of 128 residential recycling producers from all regions of Canada. One of the most significant findings is the lack of a relationship between private‐sector companies collecting recyclables and the overall efficiency of collection operations. Th…
Will Evaluation Prosper in the Future
The main thesis of this article is that program evaluation and program evaluators have largely missed out on the movement, now into its second decade, to make performance measurement the centrepiece of public sector management and accountability. If these developments are not strategically faced by evaluators, program evaluation runs the risk of becoming less and less relevant to public sector and nonprofit organizations. Evaluators, divided by e…
Program Evaluation in British Columbia in a Time of Transition
Program evaluation has undergone a major transformation in the British Columbia government during the past five years. Although conventional program evaluations continue to be conducted in some ministries, the dominant trend is towards performance measurement. The recently passed Budget Transparency and Accountability Act mandates strategic and business planning, performance measurement, and public reporting. This article identifies nine issues t…
The impacts of amalgamation on police services in the Halifax Regional Municipality
On 1 April 1996, the Nova Scotia government amalgamated the Town of Bedford, the cities of Dartmouth and Halifax and Halifax County to create the Halifax Regional Municipality. The Halifax amalgamation is one in a series of such mergers that have happened recently in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces. This study compares the costs, resources, service levels, crime rates, workloads and citizen perceptions of police services before and aft…
Solid‐waste contracting‐out, competition, and bidding practices among Canadian local governments
Canadian local governments continue to rely on private contractors to produce services for their residents. A key expectation for those who contract out services is that unit costs will be lower than the costs incurred if public crews and equipment produced the same service. A principal reason for expecting lower costs is the assumption that private contractors are exposed to competition that induces companies to operate with mixes of capital, la…
Contracting out local government services
This article discusses the findings of a detailed study of the practice of contracting out local government services in municipalities and regional districts in British Columbia. No similar study has been conducted in Canada to date, and comparable research in the United States has only examined the contracting of selected local government services. The findings are important for local government managers and elected officials because they indica…
The Impact of Radar Cameras on Traffic Speed
This article summarizes the findings from a summative quasi-experiment that examined the impacts of radar cameras on traffic speed in Vancouver. Two arterial streets were included in the evaluation. Knight Street was subjected to a two-month intervention wherein a radar camera was set up periodically and police officers recorded both the speed and licence numbers of vehicles photographed by the camera. Traffic tickets were then mailed to the regi…
Program Evaluation and Contracting out Government Services
This article suggests an important role for program evaluation skills in contracting out government services. Contracting out is being increasingly viewed as a practical and efficient alternative to governmental production of services. Key steps in the contracting out process offer opportunities to utilize program evaluation skills. Further, because contractors are held at arms length, program managers who monitor and evaluate contracts can do so…
Computer based technology in police work
Privatization versus union‐management cooperation
This article examines the residential solid waste collection experiences of two municipalities in Greater Vancouver. One has periodic competition (a contract with a private firm), the other a permanent public monopoly (city crews collect all residential solid waste). The case studies permit comparisons of cost and productivity figures over time within and between the two municipalities. Both municipalities have been successful in containing escal…
Part‐time fire fighters in Canadian municipalities
This article reports findings from a cross‐Canada study of municipal fire departments. Data gathered from a survey of 104 fire departments in 1981 and 1982 indicate that the use of part‐time fire fighters in Canadian cities over 10,000 population is widespread. Overall, municipalities that rely on mixed full‐time and part‐time fire departments or on all‐volunteer departments enjoy substantial cost savings. Further, when fire department effectiven…
The Canadian Experience with Privatizing Residential Solid Waste Collection Services
This article reports findings from an ongoing research project that focuses on the experiences of Canadian municipalities in contracting out municipal services. Although findings from this research indicate that Canadian municipal managers contract out a wide variety of services, this discussion reports only experiences of municipalities with respect to residential solid waste collection services. Data gathered from a cross-Canada survey of 126 m…
Statistical Procedures for Analyzing Factors Affecting Judicial Sentences Using Simultaneously Derived Crime Seriousness and Sentence Severity Scales
A variety of characteristics of the defendant, the case, and the court potentially could affect judicial sentences. Building on a recently published method for scaling the seriousness of the crimes and the severity of sentences, this paper describes procedures for investigating factors affecting sentence severity. An empirical example illustrates the procedures, as well as the problems of interpretation and analysis that arise in statistical stud…
Simultaneous Scaling of Offense Seriousness and Sentence Severity Through Canonical Correlation Analysis
This article describes and illustrates a new, easily applied method of scaling the severity of different types of criminal sentences and the seriousness of different types of crimes. In contrast to past approaches, this method is based on actual judicial performance, not on opinions or subjective scaling procedures. Using this approach, the effects on sentencing of variables other than type of crime can be examined
Victims' evaluation oof police performace
Victims' evaluation oof police performace
Legislator Uses of Public Performance Reports
A key assumption in efforts to implement and improve cross-government public reporting systems is that legislators will make use of the performance information to enhance accountability and improve program and policy effectiveness. This five-year study is an assessment of expectations and actual uses of annual performance reports by elected decision-makers in British Columbia, Canada. Our findings from three anonymous surveys indicate that while …
Joining public accountability and performance management
This article presents an in-depth assessment of how performance measurement, public reporting, and internal performance management have been merged in Lethbridge, Alberta. Business-unit managers and council members both share the view that performance measurement and reporting are useful and that performance information is credible. This finding contrasts with the more general view that performance information is not used much, despite widespread…
Solid‐waste contracting‐out, competition, and bidding practices among Canadian local governments
Canadian local governments continue to rely on private contractors to produce services for their residents. A key expectation for those who contract out services is that unit costs will be lower than the costs incurred if public crews and equipment produced the same service. A principal reason for expecting lower costs is the assumption that private contractors are exposed to competition that induces companies to operate with mixes of capital, la…
Contracting out local government services
This article discusses the findings of a detailed study of the practice of contracting out local government services in municipalities and regional districts in British Columbia. No similar study has been conducted in Canada to date, and comparable research in the United States has only examined the contracting of selected local government services. The findings are important for local government managers and elected officials because they indica…
Privatization versus union‐management cooperation
This article examines the residential solid waste collection experiences of two municipalities in Greater Vancouver. One has periodic competition (a contract with a private firm), the other a permanent public monopoly (city crews collect all residential solid waste). The case studies permit comparisons of cost and productivity figures over time within and between the two municipalities. Both municipalities have been successful in containing escal…
Simultaneous Scaling of Offense Seriousness and Sentence Severity Through Canonical Correlation Analysis
This article describes and illustrates a new, easily applied method of scaling the severity of different types of criminal sentences and the seriousness of different types of crimes. In contrast to past approaches, this method is based on actual judicial performance, not on opinions or subjective scaling procedures. Using this approach, the effects on sentencing of variables other than type of crime can be examined
The impacts of amalgamation on police services in the Halifax Regional Municipality
On 1 April 1996, the Nova Scotia government amalgamated the Town of Bedford, the cities of Dartmouth and Halifax and Halifax County to create the Halifax Regional Municipality. The Halifax amalgamation is one in a series of such mergers that have happened recently in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces. This study compares the costs, resources, service levels, crime rates, workloads and citizen perceptions of police services before and aft…
A cross‐Canada analysis of the efficiency of residential recycling services
The primary purpose of this article is to investigate the factors that predict the efficiency of residential recycling collection services in Canadian local governments. The findings are based on a survey of 128 residential recycling producers from all regions of Canada. One of the most significant findings is the lack of a relationship between private‐sector companies collecting recyclables and the overall efficiency of collection operations. Th…
Part‐time fire fighters in Canadian municipalities
This article reports findings from a cross‐Canada study of municipal fire departments. Data gathered from a survey of 104 fire departments in 1981 and 1982 indicate that the use of part‐time fire fighters in Canadian cities over 10,000 population is widespread. Overall, municipalities that rely on mixed full‐time and part‐time fire departments or on all‐volunteer departments enjoy substantial cost savings. Further, when fire department effectiven…
The Effects of Interjurisdictional Cooperation on Police Performance in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area
Journal Article The Effects of Interjurisdictional Cooperation on Police Performance in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area Get access James C. McDavid James C. McDavid Institute of Public Administration The Pennsylvania State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Volume 7, Issue 2, Spring 1977, Pages 3–30, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pubjof.a038448 Published…
Interjurisdictional Cooperation Among Police Departments in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area
Journal Article Interjurisdictional Cooperation Among Police Departments in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area Get access James C. McDavid James C. McDavid The Pennsylvania State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Volume 4, Issue 4, Fall 1974, Pages 35–58, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pubjof.a038338 Published: 01 January 1974
The Effects of Interjurisdictional Cooperation on Police Performance in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area
Journal Article The Effects of Interjurisdictional Cooperation on Police Performance in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area Get access James C. McDavid James C. McDavid Institute of Public Administration The Pennsylvania State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Volume 7, Issue 2, Spring 1977, Pages 3–30, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.pubjof.a038448 Published…
Victims' evaluation oof police performace
Simultaneous Scaling of Offense Seriousness and Sentence Severity Through Canonical Correlation Analysis
This article describes and illustrates a new, easily applied method of scaling the severity of different types of criminal sentences and the seriousness of different types of crimes. In contrast to past approaches, this method is based on actual judicial performance, not on opinions or subjective scaling procedures. Using this approach, the effects on sentencing of variables other than type of crime can be examined
Statistical Procedures for Analyzing Factors Affecting Judicial Sentences Using Simultaneously Derived Crime Seriousness and Sentence Severity Scales
A variety of characteristics of the defendant, the case, and the court potentially could affect judicial sentences. Building on a recently published method for scaling the seriousness of the crimes and the severity of sentences, this paper describes procedures for investigating factors affecting sentence severity. An empirical example illustrates the procedures, as well as the problems of interpretation and analysis that arise in statistical stud…
The Canadian Experience with Privatizing Residential Solid Waste Collection Services
This article reports findings from an ongoing research project that focuses on the experiences of Canadian municipalities in contracting out municipal services. Although findings from this research indicate that Canadian municipal managers contract out a wide variety of services, this discussion reports only experiences of municipalities with respect to residential solid waste collection services. Data gathered from a cross-Canada survey of 126 m…
Part‐time fire fighters in Canadian municipalities
This article reports findings from a cross‐Canada study of municipal fire departments. Data gathered from a survey of 104 fire departments in 1981 and 1982 indicate that the use of part‐time fire fighters in Canadian cities over 10,000 population is widespread. Overall, municipalities that rely on mixed full‐time and part‐time fire departments or on all‐volunteer departments enjoy substantial cost savings. Further, when fire department effectiven…
Privatization versus union‐management cooperation
This article examines the residential solid waste collection experiences of two municipalities in Greater Vancouver. One has periodic competition (a contract with a private firm), the other a permanent public monopoly (city crews collect all residential solid waste). The case studies permit comparisons of cost and productivity figures over time within and between the two municipalities. Both municipalities have been successful in containing escal…
Program Evaluation and Contracting out Government Services
This article suggests an important role for program evaluation skills in contracting out government services. Contracting out is being increasingly viewed as a practical and efficient alternative to governmental production of services. Key steps in the contracting out process offer opportunities to utilize program evaluation skills. Further, because contractors are held at arms length, program managers who monitor and evaluate contracts can do so…
Computer based technology in police work
The Impact of Radar Cameras on Traffic Speed
This article summarizes the findings from a summative quasi-experiment that examined the impacts of radar cameras on traffic speed in Vancouver. Two arterial streets were included in the evaluation. Knight Street was subjected to a two-month intervention wherein a radar camera was set up periodically and police officers recorded both the speed and licence numbers of vehicles photographed by the camera. Traffic tickets were then mailed to the regi…
Contracting out local government services
This article discusses the findings of a detailed study of the practice of contracting out local government services in municipalities and regional districts in British Columbia. No similar study has been conducted in Canada to date, and comparable research in the United States has only examined the contracting of selected local government services. The findings are important for local government managers and elected officials because they indica…
Solid‐waste contracting‐out, competition, and bidding practices among Canadian local governments
Canadian local governments continue to rely on private contractors to produce services for their residents. A key expectation for those who contract out services is that unit costs will be lower than the costs incurred if public crews and equipment produced the same service. A principal reason for expecting lower costs is the assumption that private contractors are exposed to competition that induces companies to operate with mixes of capital, la…
Program Evaluation in British Columbia in a Time of Transition
Program evaluation has undergone a major transformation in the British Columbia government during the past five years. Although conventional program evaluations continue to be conducted in some ministries, the dominant trend is towards performance measurement. The recently passed Budget Transparency and Accountability Act mandates strategic and business planning, performance measurement, and public reporting. This article identifies nine issues t…
The impacts of amalgamation on police services in the Halifax Regional Municipality
On 1 April 1996, the Nova Scotia government amalgamated the Town of Bedford, the cities of Dartmouth and Halifax and Halifax County to create the Halifax Regional Municipality. The Halifax amalgamation is one in a series of such mergers that have happened recently in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces. This study compares the costs, resources, service levels, crime rates, workloads and citizen perceptions of police services before and aft…
Will Evaluation Prosper in the Future
The main thesis of this article is that program evaluation and program evaluators have largely missed out on the movement, now into its second decade, to make performance measurement the centrepiece of public sector management and accountability. If these developments are not strategically faced by evaluators, program evaluation runs the risk of becoming less and less relevant to public sector and nonprofit organizations. Evaluators, divided by e…
A cross‐Canada analysis of the efficiency of residential recycling services
The primary purpose of this article is to investigate the factors that predict the efficiency of residential recycling collection services in Canadian local governments. The findings are based on a survey of 128 residential recycling producers from all regions of Canada. One of the most significant findings is the lack of a relationship between private‐sector companies collecting recyclables and the overall efficiency of collection operations. Th…
The Lay of the Land
A group of 12 evaluation practitioners and observers takes stock of the state of program evaluation in Canada. Each contributor provides a personal viewpoint, based on his or her own experience in the field. The selection of contributors constitutes a purposive sample aimed at providing depth of view and a variety of perspectives. Each presentation highlights one strength of program evaluation practiced in Canada, one weakness, one threat, and on…
Legislator Uses of Public Performance Reports
A key assumption in efforts to implement and improve cross-government public reporting systems is that legislators will make use of the performance information to enhance accountability and improve program and policy effectiveness. This five-year study is an assessment of expectations and actual uses of annual performance reports by elected decision-makers in British Columbia, Canada. Our findings from three anonymous surveys indicate that while …
Joining public accountability and performance management
This article presents an in-depth assessment of how performance measurement, public reporting, and internal performance management have been merged in Lethbridge, Alberta. Business-unit managers and council members both share the view that performance measurement and reporting are useful and that performance information is credible. This finding contrasts with the more general view that performance information is not used much, despite widespread…
Professional Standards for Evaluators
The National Council of the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) recognized a need to designate a professional status for the practice of evaluation for individuals who meet appropriate criteria. A consortium of experienced CES members developed an Action Plan with policy options based on (a) a literature review, (b) consultations with relevant professional organizations, (c) knowledge and experience brought by consortium members, and (d) the 2005 S…
Contribution Analysis
Contribution analysis (CA) is a theory-based approach that has become widely used in recent years to conduct defensible evaluations of interventions for which determining attribution using existing methodologies can be problematic. This critical review of the literature explores contribution analysis in detail, discussing its methods, the evolution in its epistemological underpinnings to establishing causality, and some methodological challenges …
Comparison of Canadian and American Graduate Evaluation Education Programs
University education in evaluation is an important support for the professionalization of the field. Using internet sources and direct contacts with 105 Canadian university departments, our study develops a Canada-wide inventory of graduate courses and programs, with emphasis on evaluation. Comparisons are made with inventories of American graduate evaluation programs undertaken between 1980 and 2018. Although Canada has about half as many multi-…
Reflections on Inter-University Collaboration to Deliver a Graduate Certificate in Evaluation to Government of the Northwest Territories Employees
This practice note describes and reflects on an inter-university collaboration to deliver a graduate credential in evaluation to Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) staff. The collaboration involved faculty members from two member institutions of the Consortium of Universities for Evaluation Education (CUEE). We describe the process of negotiating a contractual agreement, developing and delivering the program, and offer our reflections…
Evaluation in the Provinces and Territories
Evidence-based decision-making and managing for results are terms often heard from politicians and senior government officials at both federal and provincial levels of government in Canada. But, while there is some level of understanding at the federal level in terms of the role and use of evaluation in measuring results, there is significantly less information readily available about the extent to which evaluation is being used at other levels o…
Political science (17 works) · Business (15 works) · Computer Science (14 works) · Evaluation and Performance Assessment (12 works) · Public Administration (11 works) · Public Administration (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Public relations (9 works) · Sociology (8 works)