It is suggested that there are some serious problems with defining the concept of empowerment evaluation, with its underlying assumptions, and with its proposed justification. Although devolving some responsibility for evaluation is good, devolving all of it to stakeholders is bad, as is thinking that the devolution creates a new kind of…

The Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) welfare-to-work program in California was evaluated by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC). The evaluation relied on involvement of stakeholders, examination of program implementation, flexibility, the adaptation of evaluation questions and designs during the study, use of random…

Issues involved in empowering evaluation conducted with grass-roots organizations are discussed. One major issue centers on conflicting evaluation standards evaluators and stakeholders may have, and another is whether there is harmony between the empowerment model's goals of evaluation ownership and group advocacy. (SLD)

Results of a survey of 564 Canadian and American evaluators and evaluation project descriptions provided by a subsample of 348 evaluators indicate that evaluators support a utilization-focused, stakeholder service orientation and think that maximizing evaluation use is a primary responsibility of evaluators. (SLD)

Fostering self-determination is the defining focus of empowerment evaluation, but this type of evaluation overlaps participatory, collaborative, stakeholder-involving, and utilization-focused approaches to evaluation. It becomes critical to distinguish empowerment evaluation from other approaches as the field debates its boundaries and…

This paper examines issues involved in conducting evaluations when participation by the target groups, typically minorities and disadvantaged groups, may put them in jeopardy. Argues that participation by target groups as cooperative partners throughout the evaluation is a way of addressing this dilemma. (SLD)

Responses of 246 internal and external evaluators about reporting and communicating results show that most use traditional reporting formats, are only moderately satisfied with reporting efforts, recognize many constraints to reporting, and consider high stakeholder involvement essential to effective evaluation. (SLD)

The efforts of a committee to involve stakeholders, faculty in a department of nursing, in a program evaluation for accreditation, are described. Experiences over a five-year period are described, with an emphasis on strategies that fostered success. Implications for other educational evaluations are reviewed. (SLD)