The Graduate College

AMERICAN EVALUATION ASSOCIATION PRESENTATION CONDUCTED BY STUDENTS IN THE INTERDISCIPLINARY PH.D. IN EVALUATION PROGRAM
Doctoral candidates: Cristian Gugiu, Brandon Youker, and Nadini Persaud

In November 2006, Cristian Gugiu, Brandon Youker and Nadini Persaud, doctoral students in the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Evaluation program, delivered a premier panel presentation on the Value-Driven Evaluation approach at the American Evaluation Association conference. The presentation highlighted the necessity of including pertinent values in determining the merit, worth, and meaningful significance of the entity that is evaluated, e.g., program, policy, etc.

This presentation will be of particular relevance to evaluators because it will address four questions of significant relevance to the field:

• What are the differences between research and evaluation?
• Why are these differences important?
• How can values and standards be used to formulate evaluative statements?
• How can multiple evaluative statements be synthesized into a summative conclusion?