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Handout from session at 2011 AEA/CDC Summer Evaluation Institute

Description: Many evaluators and program staff are concerned with designing evaluations that are intended to inform more immediate decision-making and promote organizational change. A goal, then, is to offer the most useful information to answer the evaluation questions given the program context and the resources available to conduct the investigation. This session will focus on developing participants’ understanding of, and methods for increasing, evaluation use. We will begin by providing a theoretical framework for understanding and promoting evaluation use. Employing interactive and small group exercises, we will examine strategies and techniques for increasing the use of both the evaluation process and findings. Upon completion of the session, you will: understand use as a primary purpose of evaluation, understand the difference between evaluation process and evaluation findings use, become familiar with a framework for promoting use, and identify strategies for promoting and increasing evaluation use.

Audience: Those who are new to evaluation, including stakeholders in the evaluation design process, who are working in any context.

Christina A. Christie is an Associate Professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. Her research and practical work has three main foci: applied evaluation research studies, research on evaluation practice, and theoretical analysis. Tina is co-founded the Southern California Evaluation Association, a local affiliate of the American Evaluation Association, and is on the AEA Board of Directors. In 2004, she received the American Evaluation Association’s Marcia Guttentag Early Career Achievement Award.

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