How paradoxical that evaluation, the main purpose of which is to establish value, often seems to return to the lowest value of anything that people do! Too commonly, in the authors' experience, evaluation is avoided or paid as little attention as possible. Due to its typically unloved nature, evaluation can be trapped in a low-level, minimalist…

Discusses the increasing emphasis on evaluation in the fields of training and performance improvement. Suggests considering why the evaluation is being done, what is being evaluated, and how the data will be used to make it more useful. (LRW)