To determine whether program evaluation will be an important tool for policymaking and management in the Reagan Administration, it would be helpful to consider what the Reagan administration expected and received from evaluation in California during the period 1971-1974. In California, program evaluation activities were frequently implemented on a decentralized, intergovernmental basis, parallel to the President's current policy on "Federalism." As in California, cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit evaluations will probably be stressed and encouraged. California evaluation policies emphasized decision-based evaluations and attention to identifying the evaluation information needs of different user groups; this emphasis will probably be duplicated in current Federal evaluation policy. As it was in California, agency heads will have significant discretion in deciding which evaluation functions are most conducive to achieving effective policy implementation. In this atmosphere, professional evaluators will have to convince state and local officials that their work can and does meet their decision-making needs. (BW)