Evaluation policy: An introduction

Evaluation policy involves the dictates that guide the planning, conduct, and use of evaluation in any organization. It is – or at least should be – a central concern to those involved with evaluation. Evaluation policy shapes what evaluation practice looks like, while enabling or constraining what it can accomplish. This chapter offers a brief and selective history of evaluation policy in the United States. A description of the American Evaluation Association's activities regarding evaluation policy follows. The chapter then sets the stage for the other contributions in the current set of papers about evaluation policy.