Planning Evaluation Through the Program Life Cycle

Introduction

Linking evaluation methods to the several phases of a program’s life cycle can provide evaluation planners and funders with guidance about what types of evaluation are most appropriate over the trajectory of social and educational programs and other interventions. If methods are matched to the needs of program phases, evaluation can and should generate a continuously evolving body of evidence that is useful to program managers and administrators as they develop, improve, deliver, and spread more effective programs.

Contributors to this Forum discuss a framework for evaluation planning that outlines the uses of evaluation methods during an extended period of program development, testing, delivery, and dissemination. This framework may also help organize the many diverse strands of theory and practice in the evaluation field, by suggesting that different methods emphasized by diverse writers about evaluation should be matched to the different stages of program development and delivery. An initial article provides an introductory overview of the framework. Five commentaries follow; each discusses the framework from a particular perspective—an academic perspective, a view ‘‘from the trenches’’ of human service delivery, perspectives from current and prior government evaluators, and a retrospective on several evaluations funded by a major health-focused foundation. These commentaries provide examples of the application of the framework, and, in some instances, point out limitations in this approach to evaluation.

Publication Date: 
2012
Pages: 
1-32
Volume: 
00
Issue: 
0
Journal Name: 
American Journal of Evaluation
Location: 
United States