The purpose of this paper is to provide a basis for judging the adequacy of evaluation plans or, as they are commonly called, evaluation designs. The authors assume that using the procedures suggested in this paper to determine the adequacy of evaluation designs in advance of actually conducting evaluations will lead to better evaluation designs,…

Background: The philosophical underpinnings of evaluation guidelines set forth by a funding agency can sometimes seem inconsistent with that of the intervention. Purpose: Our purpose is to introduce questions pertaining to the contrast between the instructional program's underlying philosophical beliefs and assumptions and those underlying our…

Good evaluation requires that evaluation efforts themselves be evaluated. Many things can and often do go wrong in evaluation work. Accordingly, it is necessary to check evaluations for problems such as bias, technical error, administrative difficulties, and misuse. Such checks are needed both to improve ongoing evaluation activities and to assess…

This paper examines the practice of metaevaluation as indicated by the Metaevaluation standard of the Program Evaluation Standards, as the evaluation of a specific evaluation to inform stakeholders about the evaluation's strengths and weaknesses. The findings from an analysis of eighteen metaevaluations, including a description of the data…

The purposes of metaevaluation go beyond the traditional functions of accountability and enhancement. It helps guide strategic organizational change and legitimizes evaluation systems. Metaevaluation results can also be used to create checklists so that the persons responsible for any evaluation can revise, monitor, and control them by themselves.…

The Institute for Work, Skills and Training was assigned to evaluate a labor market program aimed at the integration of long-term unemployed individuals aged 50 or older. The integration should have been achieved not only by training and coaching of individuals, but also by building regional networks between labor market stakeholders within a…

While the current debate in the evaluation community has concentrated on examining and explicating implications of the choice of methods for evaluating federal programs, the authors of this paper address the challenges faced by the government in the selection of funding mechanisms for supporting program evaluation efforts. The choice of funding…