Collaborative Evaluation systematically invites and engages stakeholders in program evaluation planning and implementation. Unlike "distanced" evaluation approaches, which reject stakeholder participation as evaluation team members, Collaborative Evaluation assumes that active, on-going engagement between evaluators and program staff,…

Environmental education organizations can do more to either institute evaluation or improve the quality of their evaluation. In an effort to help evaluators bridge the gap between the potential for high quality evaluation systems to improve environmental education, and the low level of evaluation in actual practice, we reviewed recent…

This discussion foregrounds four key issues engaged by the articles presented in this special issue: the unique challenges and opportunities of environmental education evaluation, how to think well about the evaluation approaches and purposes that best match this domain, evaluation capacity building in environmental education and action, and…

We join the authors in this special issue in their call to embrace a culture of evaluation. Obstacles to change are formidable. Educators debate their purpose--provide knowledge or achieve environmental goals--and we have limited evidence of the effectiveness of environmental programs and policies. Change requires collaboration across…

Twelve articles discuss the advantages of theory-driven evaluation for: (1) identifying crucial issues; (2) integrating program implementation into evaluation; (3) diagnosing problems in program studies; (4) diagnosing problems in program structures; and (5) enhancing evaluation utilization. Topics include optimizing validity in program and…

Evaluation activities in China are examined, focusing on housing reform. How evaluation functions in justifying the political initiatives of the Chinese Communist Party is explored, and the possibility that evaluation research can become an academic field in China using Western methodology is discussed. (SLD)

The traditional experimental-control group method for evaluating delinquency prevention programs is questioned. It is contended that the method harms the intervention and exacerbates the deliquency problem. (JKS)

This article outlines an approach designed to strengthen the validity of the case study method of evaluation. Five aspects of this approach are identified: evaluator selection procedure, method of setting out the evaluation expectations, use of on-going feedback, use of multiple perspectives, and wide involvement of various audiences. (Author/JAZ)