George Grob presented the fifth and final Eleanor Chelimsky Forum address at the 2017 annual meeting of the Eastern Evaluation Research Society. In this commentary, I respond to several points that George raises in the "American Journal of Evaluation" paper based on that address. An overarching theme of my comments involves the potential…

Jill Chouinard, in her article "The Case for Participatory Evaluation in an Era of Accountability" (this issue, p. 237), may be re-iterating what has often been claimed and arguably is infused already in much of our theory and practice: the value of participatory approaches in some, perhaps many situations. She summarizes these claims eloquently…

This contribution to the Ethics section is intended to foster discussion about the relationship between multicultural competence and ethics; a timely discussion especially in view of the release in 2011 of the American Evaluation Association's Public Statement on Cultural Competence (http://www.eval.org/ccstatement.asp). Over the course of 2011,…

Linking evaluation methods to the several phases of a program's life cycle can provide evaluation planners and funders with guidance about what types of evaluation are most appropriate over the trajectory of social and educational programs and other interventions. If methods are matched to the needs of program phases, evaluation can and should…

Where do evaluators find resources on ethics and ethical practice? This article highlights a relatively new online resource, a centerpiece project of the National Center for Professional and Research Ethics (NCPRE), which brings together information on best practices in ethics in research, academia, and business in an online portal and center. It…

In "The Case for Participatory Evaluation in an Era of Accountability" (this issue), Jill Chouinard highlights seven tensions between the participatory and technocratic approaches to evaluation. She suggests that there is a need to create opportunities for more participatory approaches to evaluation. In this essay, I suggest that the era of…

In the original paper, it was argued that while there is an array of methods and methodologies available, their use is delimited by the culture of accountability that prevails in public sector institutions, a fact that is particularly problematic given the complexity and diversity of evaluation contexts today. This short rejoinder, to responses…

In this commentary, we examine Braverman's insights into the trade-offs between feasibility and rigor in evaluation measures and reject his assessment of the trade-off as a zero-sum game. We, argue that feasibility and policy salience are, like reliability and validity, intrinsic to the definition of a good measure. To reduce the tension between…

2011 is the 25th anniversary of the American Evaluation Association. Such occasions are often recognized both by looking back to assess and celebrate accomplishments of the past and by looking ahead to anticipate the problems and potential of the future. In the past 25 years, the profession of evaluation has experienced rapid, ubiquitous growth,…

Over the past 7 years, the Oral History Project Team has conducted interviews with individuals who have made signal contributions to evaluation theory and practice, tracing their professional development and contextualizing their work within the social and political climates of the time. By capturing the professional evolution of those who have…

The author is increasingly sensitive to the Venn diagram of overlapping expertise in which program evaluation intersects a content area such as public health, urban education, or--in the case of Katherine Hay--international development. Many evaluators practice in these areas of overlap, experts in the evaluation of a specific domain. Given her…

This excerpt from the opening plenary asks evaluators to consider two questions regarding learning and evaluation: (a) How do evaluators know if, how, when, and what people are learning during an evaluation? and (b) In what ways can evaluation be a learning experience? To answer the first question, evaluators can apply the commonplaces of…

This article describes the design and evaluation approaches to address the complexity posed by systems change initiatives. The role of evaluations in addressing the following issues is briefly reviewed: moving from strategic planning to implementation, impacts on system-level coordination, anticipated timeline of impact, and individual level…

D'Eon et al. concluded that change in performance self-assessment means from before to after a workshop can detect workshop success in their and other situations. In this commentary, their recommendation is refuted by showing that (a) self-assessments with balanced over- and underestimations are still biased and should not be used to evaluate…

Empowerment evaluation continues to crystallize central issues for evaluators and the field of evaluation. A highly attended American Evaluation Association conference panel, titled "Empowerment Evaluation and Traditional Evaluation: 10 Years Later," provided an opportunity to reflect on the evolution of empowerment evaluation. Several…