Performance Evaluation: Proven Approaches for Improving Program and Organizational Performance

SELECTING A MODEL

There is no one best model. The utility of evaluation models, as with any other type of model or tool, depends entirely on the situation at hand. What works in one organization does not necessarily work in another, and what worked yesterday will not necessarily work in the same way today. Stufflebeam and Webster (1980) analyzed thirteen alternative evaluation approaches in terms of their adherence to the definition of an educational evaluation: one that is designed and conducted to assist some audience to judge and improve the worth of an educational endeavor. Their analysis resulted in three categories of evaluation studies: politically oriented, or pseudo-evaluations; question oriented, or quasi-evaluations; and values oriented, ...