The profession of evaluation continues to grow, generating more demand for evaluation services than can be fulfilled by the supply of well-trained evaluation practitioners. In this brief forum article, we discuss the current state of evaluator education in the United States and the ways in which university-based programs support the development of…

The terms "outcome" and "impact" are ubiquitous in evaluation discourse. However, there are many competing definitions that lack clarity and consistency and sometimes represent fundamentally different meanings. This leads to profound confusion, undermines efforts to improve learning and accountability, and represents a…

Theory of change (ToC) is currently "the" approach for the evaluation and planning of international development programs. This approach is considered especially suitable for complex interventions. We question this assumption and argue that ToC's focus on cause-effect logic and intended outcomes does not do justice to the recursive nature…

There is a burgeoning body of evidence on the average impacts of educational programs. Yet, for many local decision makers, because impacts can vary across sites, the question of whether a certain program will work in their particular district or school remains. This article addresses the question of the generalizability of large-scale average…

This article describes our experience of conducting a 5-year, culturally responsive evaluation of a federal program with Indigenous communities. It describes how we adapted tenets from "participatory evaluation models" to ensure cultural relevance and empowerment. We provide recommendations for evaluators engaged in similar efforts. The…

Marvin Alkin and Jean King published three AJE articles on evaluation use over four years, a coherent and comprehensive series covering the historical development of evaluation use, definitions and factors associated with use and misuse, and theories of evaluation use and influence, concluding with assessment of the first 50 years of use research.…

This article reports research that examined the meaning of two broad evaluator competency domains. The first is "situational awareness" (SA) that focuses on understanding the unique contexts of evaluations and their users/stakeholders. The second is "interpersonal competence" (IC) that focuses on social skills needed for…

Evaluator education programs have developed to help support the growth of professional evaluators and improve evaluation practice. Empirical research has described where and how evaluation is taught at the graduate level of education, but little is known about the undergraduate level. This study empirically explores how, if at all, evaluation is…

More evaluators have anchored their work in equity-focused, culturally responsive, and social justice ideals. Although we have a sense of approaches that guide evaluators as to how they should attend to culture, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), we have not yet established an empirical understanding of how evaluators measure DEI. In this…

We developed principles drawn from empowerment and realist evaluation theories to guide a family youth alcohol and drug program evaluation, before reflecting on our experience to develop additional principles for future work. The research team included the program clinician and an independent researcher. A purposive sample of young people and one…

Violence, marginalization, oppression, exploitation, erasure, and injustice are cornerstones of the Black experience in the United States. Despite seemingly insurmountable challenges, Black people have worked diligently and competently to earn spaces within the present-day professional arena. While the experiences of Black professionals have been…

Project schedules are logic models that focus on the timing of program activities. Value derives from the fact that schedule changes are not random. Why they occur, and how long they last, can reveal information that would not be easily revealed with other approaches to evaluation. Also, using project schedules as logic models forges a strong link…

Chronic diseases with behavioral risk factors are now the leading causes of death in the United States. A national Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) monitors those risk factors; however, there is a need for national and state evaluations of chronic disease surveillance systems. The Department of Health and Human Services/Centers…

The flexibility federal block grants provide recipients poses challenges for evaluation. These challenges include aggregating data on wide-ranging activities grant recipients implement and the outcomes they achieve. In 2014, we began designing an evaluation to address the challenges of assessing outcomes and to improve outcome accountability for…

The applicability of Indigenous ethics to the evaluation of ecological restoration is explored through two case examples involving the Indigenous Sámi rivers of Näätämö and Ponoi in the European North. Six key restoration approaches are described that would have been overlooked had it not been for the use of Indigenous ethics from the start of the…