182 - Getting Savvy with Values: Teaching Evaluators How to Specify Criteria

Evaluation is enhanced when criteria are explicitly specified and used to determine the quality of a program or intervention. Given that little guidance is available on how to specify criteria, most evaluators are not well-prepared to identify, prioritize, and critically reflect on the value implications of specifying certain criteria over others. In this workshop, a scholar-practitioner team will present a three-step process and related learning activity for specifying criteria. Purposefully selecting criteria helps ensure that evaluations tell the stories that matter most to those involved in and affected by interventions. In Part I of the workshop, attendees learn how to specify evaluative criteria. After introducing the role of values and criteria in evaluation, presenters demonstrate a three-step process that draws on a research-backed framework for specifying evaluative criteria. Part I closes with a critical reflection on using criteria to pluralize perspectives and center equity and justice (AEA, 2018). In Part II of the workshop, attendees learn how to teach others to specify evaluative criteria. Presenters share a learning activity, recently published, freely available for public use, and inspired by the session leads who teach graduate courses and conduct research on evaluation. It consists of an instructor guide, handouts (including a case narrative and analysis), and extension activities. Part II closes with a question-and-answer discussion on using the learning activity. The session is designed for anyone interested in learning how to specify evaluative criteria, especially those who lead evaluation courses, workshops, and technical assistance and use evaluation rubrics.