This article presents an interview with Eric Barela, a K-12 school district internal evaluator who conducted the Title I Best Practices study for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Research and Planning Division (formerly known as the Program Evaluation and Research Branch). In this interview, the author focuses not only on the choices Barela made while working on his Title I Best Practices study, but also on how this study might represent his work with the LAUSD more generally. Throughout the interview, Barela draws upon his experience as an evaluator for the District to help the author and the readers understand the issues he encounters when conducting studies, and the insights he has gained along the way. Evident from the interview, Barela's work is impacted by both the politics of evaluation practice and the political role attributed to evaluation. Related to this, two themes emerged in the interview, the "politics of credibility" and "evaluation use." (Contains 1 note.)