Evaluation is as basic to professional development as it is to education. Unfortunately, systematic evaluations of professional development programs are rarely, if ever, undertaken. Professional development has become polluted by extraordinarily presumptuous rhetoric about the intrinsic value of "development." In the recent flurry of activity those involved in or developing such programs are preoccupied with program activities, or processes, and have lost sight of the real goal of educational improvement. Most have forgotten that higher education is a system and must be approached as such. For far too long evaluation has been presented as polar--either strictly quantitative or strictly impressionistic. In fact, neither methodology is adequate by itself. Quantitative evaluation pays no attention to the merit of established program goals and gives no consideration to the configuration of people, events, processes, and practices that characterize the environment in which a program operates; evaluations yielded tend to be voluminous but dull, insensitive, technical reports. The other approach concentrates solely on program processes, eschewing judgments about the program's worth. Holistic evaluation, a hybrid of the two approaches, is an eclectic approach that includes process and product, description and quantification and goals and attitudes. This comprehensive approach is particularly well suited to the myriad of programs for professional development. (MSE)