Background: The Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Evaluation (IDPE) program at Western Michigan University (WMU) was designed and developed to address the increasing need and demand for highly trained and skilled evaluators. After only six and a half years, the program's graduates are serving in important evaluation leadership positions throughout the…

In this paper, the author considers certain aspects of the problem of obtaining unbiased information about the merits of a program or product, whether for purposes of decision making or for accountability. The evaluation of personnel, as well as the evaluation of proposals and evaluations, generally involves a different set of problems than those…

The evaluation of government-financed research has become increasingly important in the last few decades in terms of increasing the quality of, and payoff from, the research that is done, reducing the cost of doing it, and lending public credibility to the manner in which research is funded. But there are very large differences throughout the…

Discusses the evaluation matrix used in the national evaluation of the 4-H program and identifies where the payoffs for society in terms of learning for children are likely to occur, revealing results of the evaluation in comparison to expected payoffs. (CS)

Discusses the sources and signs of excessive evaluation anxiety in program evaluation and provides some strategies to help evaluators prevent and manage this common problem. Shows how more than technical skills are required to conduct high quality program evaluation. (SLD)

Addresses the role of evaluation, the basic logic of evaluation, and how the field of evaluation is structured. Focuses on evaluation in applied psychology, and describes the six conventional fields of evaluation. (SLD)