This text provides a comparative cross-country analysis of evaluation culture and the institutionalization of evaluation. The countries included in this research are the 19 OECD countries examined by the authors of the International Atlas of Evaluation 10 years ago (Furubo et al., 2002). The analysis is based on the results of an expert survey of four to five evaluation experts from different backgrounds for each country, as well as additional information from the literature. Using the nine indicators from Furubo et al. (2002) with a focus on the institutional characteristics of reforms, trends in evaluation culture over the last decade have been identified.

To date, the role of evaluation in parliaments has merely been analyzed. This surprises as members of parliament are stakeholders 'par excellence', who could have an interest in evaluation. But do they? Via a systematic analysis of written questions and interpellations in Germany and Flanders we investigate MPs attention for evaluations. The following aspects are analyzed, from a comparative perspective: the content of questions on evaluation, the political profile of the MPs posing the questions, the share of questions on evaluation, and the distribution of questions over political parties, policy areas and over time.

Peer evaluation has proved to be a popular approach with both peers and the evaluated, but there has been considerable variation in the ways in which peer evaluations have been implemented. There are different forms, purposes and ways of organizing peer evaluation. Peer evaluations are also not uniform and links to other evaluations can be made. After providing a general overview of different kinds of peer evaluation, this article focuses on the results from a meta-evaluation of peer evaluation in Initial Vocational Education and Training (IVET). This meta-evaluation was partly inspired by existing evaluation standards and covered fifteen peer-review pilots in eight European countries. First, the scope of the peer team and the underlying evaluative framework are discussed. Second, the nuances of implementation and the conflicts that exist are highlighted. The article concludes that, under certain conditions, peer evaluation and self-evaluation provide a powerful tandem to produce empirically grounded, context-sensitive information to support school improvement.

Evaluation standards can be useful not only as a framework for the design but as an assessment of particular evaluations. They can also serve as indicators for the developmental stage of evaluation practice in different areas or countries. Until recently, there has not been any large-scale and comprehensive empirical investigation of knowledge and use of evaluation standards for Europe. This chapter discusses the results of one such study that used the Joint Committee Program Evaluation Standards. The study, which we undertook on behalf of the European Center for the Development of Vocational Training, is a Europe-wide empirical study on evaluation standards within the policy field of vocational training and education (VET) that includes reflections from the standpoint of users, evaluators, and researchers in the field of evaluation (In Europe, a high percentage of evaluations take place in the context of VET programs, partly within the framework of active labor market programs or within quality management initiatives in the highly heterogeneous VET field. Literature on VET evaluation encompasses a broad palette of perspectives. Some articles focus on model theory or evaluation methods, while others report on completed evaluations.

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