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…

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…

Community-based organizations (CBOs), typically small and underfunded with transient staff members, are told by funders to care for clients and verify program value. To assist CBOs with evaluations that speak to program effectiveness, many funders wish to expand the evaluation capacity of CBO staff members so that evaluation will occur as long as…

Weakness in evaluations often can be traced to structural limitations in the positions of evaluation researchers. Conventional human relations techniques often are an insufficient basis for securing strong support for evaluation research. Strategies for increasing evaluation research leverage are reviewed. Alignment of evaluation research with…

Three types of explanation in evaluation are discussed: causal explanations, explanations of actions, and explanations of value judgments. The role and importance of each form is addressed, as are alternate approaches to providing such explanation. The concept of explanation is defined as anything said or done to help someone understand something.…

Robert Stake presents his views on responsive evaluation, naturalistic approaches to evaluation, the role of testing in evaluation, and the training of evaluators. (BW)

What a realistic training program should require, given a broad scope of research methodology, is discussed. Considering the core of evaluation research training, the diversity of methodologies raises issues about what is to be taught and how the involvement of students in actual projects is discussed. (Author/GK)

Considered fundamentally a scientific enterprise, evaluation research also requires artistic skills. The latter are essential to in-house evaluators, more so than to extrainstitutional evaluators. A training model is suggested. (Author/GK)

Evaluators usually have preconceptions about how decisions are made in social programs and how evaluation results will be used. This article demonstrates how an evaluator's choice of a decision-making model has significant impact on the conduct and fate of the research. (Author/CM)

Scriven advocates a philosophical shift from the pseudoscientific doctrine of the traditional social sciences. He substitutes a key evaluation checklist--encompassing needs assessment, comparative value, and assessment of overall value; and suggests that evaluators use this checklist. Theoretically, the grounding of evaluation in judging and…

This paper presents a classification and critique of evaluator roles, and discusses the power relationships in which the evaluator engages and the power and influence strategies available to the evaluator within each type of role. The paper describes an evaluator role continuum, from "evaluator as technician" to "evaluator as change agent." At one…

A problem, endemic to program evaluation, centering around the inability of evaluations to produce meaningful information, is outlined. A general strategy to be utilized in responding to the problem, the ethnographic approach, is presented. The discussion of an ethnographic evaluation model focuses upon: the role of the participant observer,…

The evaluation of educational programs in higher education needs a better theoretical base than it has had. Proposals as to what that base should encompass are discussed and an approach that involves a more adequate conceptual and procedural model is explored. Focus is on a systems viewpoint. (JMD)

This paper proposes a comprehensive approach to program evaluation and suggests employing a number of methods in evaluating a program. Exclusive allegiance to one school of thought and adoption of one particular technique leads to limited comprehension about programs, and hence their evaluations. If evaluation is viewed as a process by which…

Practical suggestions to an evaluator are presented. It is seen as essential that an evaluator who would influence decision making through research realize that the research in which he engages, the data collected, and the analysis and interpretation are influenced by the values of the institution that the evaluator serves. (MLW)