A contingent approach to strategy and tactics in formative and summative evaluations

John M Bryson, John W. Cullen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

A contingent approach to strategic and tactical choices in formative and summative evaluations is presented. Choices regarding evaluation phases and tactics were found to be dependent on evaluation goals (e.g., whether the evaluation has a formative or summative purpose) and contextual variables. A simulation was designed to pool the judgments of evaluators and users of evaluations to see how they felt evaluation strategy and tactics should change as the situation changes so as to increase the likelihood of evaluation success. Eight panels were constructed to examine eight different situations. The next step in this research is to determine whether following the pooled judgments does lead to greater evaluation success.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)267-290
Number of pages24
JournalEvaluation and Program Planning
Volume7
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1984

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The research reported here was supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Personnel Preparation to the National Support Systems Project at the University of Minnesota and to the University of Florida, and by grants from the endowment of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

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