1. The Development and Status of Evaluation Standards in Western Europe
- Author
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Widmer, Thomas
- Abstract
For many years, the European evaluation community did not recognize evaluation standards as a relevant tool for quality assurance. References to the developments in the United States were exceptionally rare in the European evaluation literature during the 1970s and 1980s. One of the first articles on evaluation standards to appear in the European literature was Wolfgang Beywl's discussion of the Evaluation Standards of the Evaluation Research Society and the Standards for Educational Evaluation. Another early example of the standards discussion in Europe was the translation of the ERS Standards into German. In the past decade, however, discussion about evaluation standards has accelerated in Europe. Based on the cultural diversity of the region, national evaluation organizations have taken distinct approaches to activities in the field of quality assurance in evaluation. This article examines the domain of evaluation standards since the beginning of the 1990s in Western Europe. It looks specifically at Switzerland, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom because they are the European front-runners in this domain. Although the focus of this article is on evaluation standards, it also discusses documents with other labels, specifically principles and charters. The argument underlying this decision is twofold. First, despite their names, these documents play similar roles as nominal evaluation standards. Second, in the author's view, their existence has an unavoidable relevance for the future of evaluation standards in Europe. (Contains 2 tables.)
- Published
- 2004
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