Brief History

There is no uniformly accepted definition of what constitutes evaluation research. At perhaps its narrowest point, the field of evaluation research can be defined as "the use of scientific methods to measure the implementation and outcomes of programs for decision-making purposes" (Rutman 1984, p. 10). A broader, and more widely accepted, definition is "the systematic application of social research procedures for assessing the conceptualization, design, implementation, and utility of social intervention programs" (Rossi and Freeman 1993, p. 5). A much broader definition is offered by Scriven (1991), who suggests that evaluation is "the process of determining the merit, worth and value of things" (p. 1). In the latter definition, the notion of what can be evaluated is not limited to a social program or specific type of intervention but encompasses, quite literally, everything.

Any description of the history of evaluation research depends on how the term is defined. Certainly, individuals...