The ERS Standard for Program Evaluation encompass front-end analysis, evaluability assessment, formative evaluation, impact evaluation, program monitoring, and evaluation of evaluation. Written as simple admonitory statements, the Standards are organized into sections on formative and negotiation, structure and design, data collection and…

Characteristics of new information technologies have implications for their evaluation. The instability of most technologies, and their novelty for most users, calls into question the value of experimental summative studies. Their interactive character challenges the traditional formative paradigm. Case studies and field experiments can help to…

Evaluation is discussed as an information-gathering process. Currently popular evaluation programs are reviewed in relation to decision making and various approaches that seem to contribute to the decision utility of evaluation (e.g. classical approaches, Bayesian approaches, adaptive designs, and model-based evaluations) are described. (Author/AL)

Deliberately involving urban education stakeholders in the Cities-in-Schools evaluation study improved the utility of the findings for formative evaluation stakeholders but not for summative evaluation stakeholders. (Author/PN)

To judge the usefulness of the naturalistic method for any given evaluation circumstance, several questions about the situation should be answered. Sixteen questions, with sample answers regarding a recent evaluation situation, are presented to determine the utility of the naturalistic paradigm for a potential evaluation situation. (LMO)