The relationship among various characteristics of evaluation studies and their overall quality was studied using all of the evaluation studies (N=366) conducted in Israel over 30 years on special projects for disadvantaged students at the elementary school level. The following variables were defined to describe each study: (1) evaluation definition; (2) role of the evaluation; (3) object of the evaluation; (4) variables of the evaluation; (5) evaluation criteria; (6) clients and audiences; (7) evaluation process; (8) research methods; (9) types of evaluators; and (10) evaluation standards. The analysis showed that judgmental definitions of evaluation were more common among academic evaluators and in summative evaluations. Descriptive definitions were more often used by practitioners. Surveys and quasi-experimental designs were the most common research methods, and most evaluations were conducted by external evaluators. There was a positive relationship between the methodological adequacy of the evaluation reports and their level of relevance. Results suggest that building on the academic educational research community could be the best approach for program evaluation in Israel. There is a list of 15 references. (SLD)