Conceptual challenges confronting cluster evaluation

  • Blaine R. Worthen
  • , Constance C. Schmitz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In this paper, the authors describe an approach to evaluating large-scale initiatives that span multiple project sites and respond to multiple evaluation needs at the project and program levels. Known as 'cluster evaluation' by those working with and for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, a private philanthropic institution in the US, this approach encounters problems and offers solutions that are similar to other 'devolved' evaluation strategies for dispersed programs in the UK and several other European countries. This paper positions cluster evaluation in the literature and practice of evaluation by (I) describing cluster evaluation's key features, (2) relating it to core concepts in the evaluation field, (3) distinguishing it from other forms of multi-site evaluation, and (4) outlining a number of conceptual challenges that need to be resolved for the approach to achieve broader applicability and success.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)300-319
Number of pages20
JournalEvaluation
Volume3
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1997
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
2. See, for example, evaluation plans or reports for the following initiatives: The Fighting Back Initiative, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Healthy Start, funded by the Public Health Service (Health and Human Services, US Government); the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation's Community Health Promotion Grants Program; the Center for Substance Abuse (C-SAP) Community Partnerships (Health and Human Services, US Government); and the National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society's ASSIST program in smoking cessation (National Institutes of Health, US Federal Government).

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