The new pillars of agency-based evaluation

Abstract

New kinds of human service technologies are emerging to satisfy policy expectations and consumer demands for high performance, effectiveness, and innovation. This has had profound consequences for how human service agencies and the services they provide are evaluated. In the past, evaluation often was seen as an end in itself, or it was undertaken only because the agency was required to do so. Today, human service organizations are beginning to see knowledge derived from evaluation as key to their survival and growth, and they are developing internal capabilities for using evaluation to improve operations. Agencies, seeking to make better use of indigenous, practice-oriented knowledge to improve services and increase benefits for clients, are beginning to support evaluation as an integral part of their operations. An increasing number of these agencies are making evaluation part of a comprehensive cycle of knowledge-building for the advancement of agency practice.