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Research On the Utilization of Evaluations

Laura C. Leviton, Edward F. X. Hughes

Open publisher page 357 citations

Abstract

An area of concernfor evaluation research is the extent to which evaluations are utilized in policy and program development and change. The current review critically discusses definition of utilization and methodsfor detecting utilization. Five "clusters" of variables have been found to affect utilization. These are: (1) the relevance of evaluation to the needs of potential users; (2) extent of communication between potential users and producers of evaluations; (3) translation of evaluations into their implicationsforpolicy and programs; (4) credibility or trust placed in evaluations; and (5) commitment or advocacy by individual users.

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What this paper is about

An area of concernfor evaluation research is the extent to which evaluations are utilized in policy and program development and change. The current review critically discusses definition of utilization and methodsfor detecting utilization. Five "clusters" of variables have been found to affect utilization. These are: (1) the relevance of evaluation to the needs of potential users; (2) extent of communication between potential users and producers of evaluations; (3) translation of evaluations into their implicationsforpolicy and programs; (4) credibility or trust placed in evaluations; and (5) commitment or advocacy by individual users.

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OpenAlex reports 357 citations for this work. Citation counts describe recorded attention and do not establish research quality.

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Available abstract

An area of concernfor evaluation research is the extent to which evaluations are utilized in policy and program development and change. The current review critically discusses definition of utilization and methodsfor detecting utilization. Five "clusters" of variables have been found to affect utilization. These are: (1) the relevance of evaluation to the needs of potential users; (2) extent of communication between potential users and producers of evaluations; (3) translation of evaluations into their implicationsforpolicy and programs; (4) credibility or trust placed in evaluations; and (5) commitment or advocacy by individual users.

Key concepts: Credibility, Affect (linguistics), Relevance (law), Program evaluation, Psychology, Evaluation methods, Public relations, Applied psychology

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