From program to network: The evaluator's role in today's public problem-solving environment

Abstract

Today's public policy discussions increasingly focus on how networks of public and private actors collaborate across organizational, sectoral, and geographical boundaries to solve increasingly complex problems. Yet, many of evaluation's key concepts, including the evaluator's role, assume an evaluand that is programmatically or organizationally defined and bounded. This article explores the implications of this changing public policy environment for the evaluator's role by examining one case: an evaluand that was a loose collaboration of four individuals in dispersed organizations working to reframe public policy and to change professional practice in early care and education. We describe this evaluand and the dimensions of it that challenged our evaluative role. We conclude by suggesting an alternative conception of the evaluator's role that can serve evaluators in this changing policy environment. © 2009 American Evaluation Association.