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Many evaluators will already be familiar with the Program Evaluation Standards developed by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation (JCSEE). For those newer to the field, take comfort in knowing that evaluation has this set of Standards to guide your way forward. The Standards provide guidance both for evaluators in planning and implementing their program evaluation projects, and for evaluation users in knowing what to expect from the evaluation process and products.

Evaluation practitioners come to their work through diverse academic and practice backgrounds. We may identify primarily as evaluators, or as a myriad of other job titles: program manager, executive director, assessment coordinator, quality improvement director, research assistant or data scientist, to name a few. The Program Evaluation Standards help to bring all of that professional diversity together into a field that has a common language and common expectations.

Developed and revised by experts, and with sponsoring organizations including the American Evaluation Association and the Canadian Evaluation Society, the Standards are published in a comprehensive guide that we recommend all evaluators keep in their library.

Through developing and delivering evaluation training, we know the value of short guides for translating concepts to practice. That’s why we developed this free resource that helps evaluators reflect on whether and how they are applying the Standards to their practice.

Our 6-page resource provides evaluators with reflective questions for each of the Standards. We suggest that you read through these questions as part of your evaluation planning process or use them to guide a self-reflective exercise after your evaluation project has concluded. For anyone working toward their Credentialed Evaluator designation through the Canadian Evaluation Society, this guide will support you to consider the Reflective Practice competencies.

Reference: Yarbrough, D.B., Shula, L.M., Hopson, R.K., & Caruthers, F.A. (2010). The Program Evaluation Standards: A guide for evaluators and evaluation users (3rd. ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.