Performance Evaluation: Proven Approaches for Improving Program and Organizational Performance

WHEN DOES EVALUATION OCCUR?

Having measurable performance objectives in the correct format does not guarantee that the objectives address the right things. Decades ago, people realized that focusing only on objectives could cause an evaluator to miss important data on process and environment. In the 1960s, the realization that evaluation could play a role in the development of educational programs to adjust content and process along the way to the final results gave rise to a famous distinction when Scriven (1967) introduced the terms formative and summative as well as goal-free evaluation. Since then, evaluators have had a term for the type of evaluation activity used to guide developmental activity in programs (formative) and another term for ...