Summarizes a report from Northwestern University that reviewed Federal evaluation practices of federally supported educational programs at the national, state, and local levels. Considers: (1) evaluation purposes and methods; (2) evaluators' capabilities; (3) use of evaluation results; and (4) ways that evaluation procedures/practices can be…

An information feedback model and an ideology of evaluation are posed and contrasted with experiences in evaluation research. Impact on policy is the criterion for success of an evaluation and political constraints block this impact. Some ways social researchers might conceptualize and construct an appropriate base of power are considered.…

The cross-levels hypothesis is presented as an explanation for program evaluation failures. It states that the usefulness of evaluation data as feedback for decision making varies inversely with the number of organizational levels between the action the data describe, and the decisions they are intended to influence. To be useful for decision…