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In this article, the authors review the case scenario featured in "When Is an External Evaluator No Longer External?" In the literature, the authors observe that there is no dearth of definitions of internal and external evaluators. For example, Kendall-Tackett defined an external evaluator as "any individual not directly involved in the program under evaluation" and an internal evaluator as "any staff person directly involved in the program under evaluation, or in the agency in which the program is housed." Worthen and Sanders thoroughly examined the advantages and disadvantages of external evaluators and identified an impartial and fresh perspective as the most important benefit of hiring external evaluators. However, as demonstrated in the scenario, distinguishing internal and external evaluation is not so clear cut. In the scenario, the author also questions whether the role of Dr. Porto-Novo, who was involved in evaluating previous of the International Development Agency, was an internal and external evaluator.

Using the evaluation work on the W.K. Kellogg Foundation's Unleashing Resources Initiative as an example, in this article we explicate a general four-step model appropriate for multilevel evaluation alignment. We review the relevant literature, argue for the need for evaluation alignment in a multilevel context, explain the four-step model, discuss the benefits of the model, and address the issues that one should pay attention to when implementing our alignment model.