Editors’ notes

Abstract

This volume surveys the landscape regarding evaluation policy. According to Trochim et al. (2009, p. 16), evaluation policy includes “any rule or principle that a group or organization uses to guide its decisions and actions when doing evaluation.” Evaluation policy involves rules or principles that govern evaluation itself. Evaluation policies can be quite important because they are likely to “enable and constrain the potential contributions evaluation can make” (Mark et al., 2009, p. 3). The current issue of NDE expands on and updates an earlier issue, New Directions for Evaluation (NDE, issue no. 123) (Trochim et al., 2009). Much has changed since the 2009 issue, including more widespread development of explicit evaluation policies in agencies and organizations; empirical studies of evaluation policies; important legislation at the U.S. federal level, particularly the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (the Evidence Act), which was signed into law in 2019; and ongoing changes in practices related to and emanating from evaluation policies, including those mandated by the Evidence Act. The current issue reviews many of these empirical, legislative, and practice developments, bringing readers up to date on evaluation policy and pointing the way to productive future directions. Most chapters in the issue focus primarily on the U.S. federal government. However, the volume gives attention to implications for the broader evaluation community. The first chapter, by the issue editors, Nick Hart and Mel Mark, introduces the reader to the idea of evaluation policy, offers a brief history, examines the role of the American Evaluation Association (AEA), and sets the stage for the chapters that follow. Chapter 2 consists of the AEA’s Evaluation Roadmap for a More Effective Government, prepared by the Association’s Evaluation Policy Task Force. In Chapter 3, Hind Al Hudib and Bradley Cousins draw on their research examining the written evaluation policies of a sample of international development agencies, a sample that, although global in scope, includes agencies of the U.S. federal government. Al Hudib and Cousins expand Trochim’s (2009) definition of evaluation policy, review the components found in evaluation policies, and examine likely linkages between aspects of an evaluation policy and evaluation capacity building. Chapter 4, by Leslie Ann Fierro, Alana Kinarsky, Carlos Escheverra-Estrada, Nadia Bass, and Christina Ann Christie, presents results from an interview study examining the initial implementation of evaluation policies at the U.S. federal level. Chapter 5, by Kathryn Newcomer, Karol Olejniczak, and Nicholas Hart, focuses on learning agendas, also known as evidence-building plans. Learning agendas are a requirement of the Evidence Act, but some federal agencies and other organizations had previously created this kind of strategic plan for evaluation and evidence. Newcomer and her colleagues