What Is Evaluation?
Mainly because there have been different approaches to evaluation over the years, definitions
of the term evaluation have themselves varied. In earlier times, for example, evaluation was
commonly associated with assessing achievement against clearly defined objectives, or (in
schools and universities) conducting norm-referenced testing, or (in such fields as agriculture
and experimental psychology) conducting controlled experiments. Also, particularly during
the 1970s, many evaluations were keyed only or mainly to professional judgment. Subsequently,
there was a growing belief that useful evaluations are ones that provide quality information
for making and assessing decisions. These and other concepts of evaluation have elements of
credibility, depending often on the type of evaluation study being undertaken and especially
the needs of the evaluation users.