Evaluation Use Survey

How do evaluators really feel about evaluation use?

Can evaluation enhance individual and group learning? How often do clients ignore undesirable results or exaggerate positive results? How involved should evaluators be in follow-up activities like action planning? Can evaluation change social power structures or transform organizations? Should evaluators facilitate organizational learning?

How do evaluators really feel about evaluation use?

Hallie Preskill and Valerie Caracelli answered these questions with the first evaluation use survey in 1996, and Dreolin Fleischer and Christina Christie revisited these questions with the second use survey in 2006. I’m adminstering the third use survey in 2013.

What issues will take center stage during the third survey – nonuse, misuse, evaluative thinking, organizational learning, or other hot topics? Feel free to share your ideas in the comments section below.

The Survey Instruments

The first evaluation use survey (by Hallie Preskill and Valerie Caracelli in 1996)
The second evaluation use survey (by Dreolin Fleischer and Tina Christie in 2006)
Comparison of first, second, and third surveys

Additional information about the third survey:

Project Timeline
Flyer for Evaluation Use meeting at the AEA 2013 conference

Articles, Reports, and Blog Posts

Who’s talking about the first evaluation use survey?

  • Preskill, H. & Caracelli, V. (1997). Current and developing conceptions of use: Evaluation Use TIG survey results. American Journal of Evaluation, 18, 209-225.

Who’s talking about the second evaluation use survey?

  • Fleischer, D. N., Christie, C. A., & LaVelle, K. B. (2008). Perceptions of evaluation capacity building in the United States: A descriptive study of American Evaluation Association members. The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 23, 37-60.
  • Fleischer, D. N. & Christie, C. A. (2009). Evaluation use: Results from a survey of U.S. American Evaluation Association members. American Journal of Evaluation, 30, 158-175.
  • Harnar, M. A. and Preskill, H. (2007). Evaluators’ descriptions of process use: An exploratory study. New Directions for Evaluation, 116, 27-44.
  • Evaluation Use. Blog post by Carson Research Consulting in September 2012.

Who’s talking about the third evaluation use survey?

  • How do evaluators really feel about evaluation use? Blog post on Actionable Data by Kim Firth Leonard on November 20, 2012.