The Theory behind Practical Evaluation

Abstract

Two claims are put forward in this article : (I) practical evaluation, especially practical program evaluation, depends on theoretical assumptions that put its procedures and conclusions at risk; and (2) practical evaluation is unnecessarily and seriously limited because of its failure to use theory as a way to recognize and develop solutions to problems not yet solved in practice. Both claims raise the question of the relation of theory to practice in our discipline, and most of the article concerns this question. The focus of the discussion is the recent Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation. At the end, one possible low-level theory about evaluation-essentially, a conception of evaluation as a discipline-is proposed.