Evaluation Approaches

Even a brief look at the research literature about evaluation reveals numerous options for planning and implementing a program evaluation. For the most part this diversity is the result of the context in which the evaluation takes place, the requirements of the program managers or funders, the knowledge and skill of the evaluators, and the stakeholders' preference from among evaluation perspectives discussed in the next section.

Evaluation Perspectives

Broadly, program evaluations can be viewed as framed by utilitarian and intuitionist/pluralist perspectives (House, 1980). A utilitarian approach makes judgments based on the notion of the greatest good for the greatest number of people. In contrast, an intuitionist/pluralist ...

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