The Program Evaluation Standards Quotes

“Standard A1 acknowledges that accuracy in evaluation contexts is not established in a universal sense. Ideas and meanings expressed in specific languages can change over time, places, individuals, and groups. For conclusions to be accurate in a practical sense such that their consequences are justified, they must be understood within the contexts where the languages and concepts that support them can be applied. Part of the rationale for Standard A1 is to call attention to this practicality while emphasizing the key importance of sound methods in specific contexts.”
― Donald B. Yarbrough, The Program Evaluation Standards: A Guide for Evaluators and Evaluation Users

“At the organizational level, this value can take the form of acquiring the capacity to sustain ongoing evaluative inquiry. This outcome is more likely when participants experience evaluation as a meaningful and productive way to enhance patterns of work and communication. Participatory, collaborative, appreciative, and empowering mechanisms are often at the heart of evaluations where process use is a high priority. These mechanisms can promote stakeholder ownership of the evaluation processes and products and thus enhance process use, as well as use of evaluation findings. For some organizations, evaluation capacity building means that evaluation stakeholders learn how to work effectively with external evaluators. This organizational learning further facilitates the contributions that external evaluation processes and findings can make to the organization’s growth and productivity.”
― Donald B. Yarbrough, The Program Evaluation Standards: A Guide for Evaluators and Evaluation Users