George Grob presented the fifth and final Eleanor Chelimsky Forum address at the 2017 annual meeting of the Eastern Evaluation Research Society. In this commentary, I respond to several points that George raises in the American Journal of Evaluation paper based on that address. An overarching theme of my comments involves the potential for strengthening the linkages between evaluation theory and evaluation practice. Research on evaluation should also be added to this pairing.
ChelimskyE. (2012). Balancing theory and practice in the real world. Eastern Evaluation Research Society annual conference, Absecon, NJ.
2.
CronbachL. J.AmbronS. R.DornbuschS. M.HessR. D.HornikR. C.PhillipsD. C.…WeinerS. S. (1980). Toward reform of program evaluationSan Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
3.
GreeneJ. C. (2007). Mixed methods in social inquiry. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley.
4.
GrobG. F. (2018). Evaluation practice: Proof, truth, client relationships, and professional growth. American Journal of Evaluation, 39, 123–132. doi:10.1177/1098214017734640
5.
HouseE. R. (1994). Integrating the quantitative and qualitative. New Directions for Program Evaluation, 61, 13–22.
6.
MarkM. M.CooksyL. C.TrochimW. M. K. (2009). Evaluation policy: An introduction and overview. In TrochimW. M. K.MarkM. M.CooksyL. C. (Eds.), Evaluation policy and evaluation practice (pp. 3–11). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
7.
MarkM. M.MillsJ. (2007). The use of experiments and quasi-experiments in decision making. In MorcölG. (Ed.), Handbook of decision making (pp. 459–482). New York, NY: Marcel Dekker.
8.
PattonM. Q. (1997). Utilization-focused evaluation: The new century text (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
9.
ScrivenM. (2009). Meta-evaluation revisited. Journal of Multidisciplinary Evaluation, 6, iii–vii.
10.
ShadishW. R. (1998). Evaluation theory is who we are. American Journal of Evaluation, 19, l–19.
11.
ShadishW. R.CookT. D.LevitonL. C. (1991). Foundations of program evaluation: Theories of practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
12.
StevahnL.KingJ. A.GhereG.MinnemaJ. (2005). Establishing essential competencies for program evaluators. American Journal of Evaluation, 26, 43–59.
