Utilization-Focused Evaluation

Utilization-focused evaluation begins with the premise that evaluations should be judged by their utility and actual use; therefore, evaluators should facilitate the evaluation process and design any evaluation with careful consideration of how everything that is done, from beginning to end, will affect use. This is consistent with standards developed by the Joint Committee on Standards for Evaluation and adopted by the American Evaluation Association that evaluations should be judged by their utility, feasibility, propriety, and accuracy. (See chapter on standards and principles for evaluations.)