Educating Evaluators 1976–2017: An Expanded Analysis of University-Based Evaluation Education Programs

Abstract

2015 was designated the International Year of Evaluation, suggesting that evaluation has an important role to play in service of positive global ideals. It is vital to recognize the critical role that the education of evaluators plays in these efforts. The current study uses an online search and curricular analysis to provide a snapshot of evaluation education in late 2017 as well as a retrospective analysis of advanced degrees in evaluation offered at universities across time. The results indicate a period of dramatic growth in the number of certificates and master’s degrees being offered at universities across the world over the decades, with a minor decrease in doctoral programs in the past 5 years. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

An Empirical Examination of Evaluation’s Presence in the Undergraduate Curriculum in the United States

“…First, the study was dependent on a single source of data: publicly available university and college bulletins. These data sources are considered to be valid representations of the courses that students must take in order to graduate with a particular credential (LaVelle & Donaldson, 2010; LaVelle, 2014), but they are prone to human error in their development, dissemination, and revision (LaVelle, in press), as well as discrepancies between what is advertised and what is actually taught. It is possible that some of the courses identified in this study are being phased out, and it is simultaneously possible that new courses are being phased in.…”

Commentary on the Editor's Notes and Chapters 1, 2, and 3

“…To illustrate, since the mid‐1990s additional studies of training opportunities have taken place: in 1994, about 10 years later, and the most recent in 2019 (LaVelle, 2020). In the 1990s, AEA initiated two investigations of the accreditation of evaluation training and the certification/credentialing of evaluators.…”

Grounding the 2018 AEA Evaluator Competencies in the Broader Context of Professionalization

“…Universities in the USA began offering courses in evaluation methodology and developing evaluation standards between 1958 and 1972 (Russ‐Eft & Preskill, 2009; Hogan, 2010). Although the number of programs in the US increased between the 1970s and 1980s, evaluator education programs in the 1990s and 2000s declined in number, possibly due to changing definitions of a “training program” (Altschuld & Engle, 2015; LaVelle, 2020) and a decline in federal funding (Russ‐Eft & Preskill, 2009). LaVelle and Donaldson (2015) contend that the profession has, nevertheless, experienced dramatic growth, development, and institutionalization since the 1960s.…”

“…LaVelle and Donaldson (2015) contend that the profession has, nevertheless, experienced dramatic growth, development, and institutionalization since the 1960s. LaVelle (2020) illustrates this trend and clarifies that in 1980 there were three evaluation certificates, twenty‐two master's degrees, and twenty‐seven doctoral programs, whereas in 2017 while the number of doctoral programs remained steady at twenty‐seven, there were forty‐two certificates (a growth of thirty‐nine) and forty‐two master's degrees (a growth of twenty) in the United States.…”