Standards of Excellence from a Leader of Excellence: Honoring Our Professional Heritage and Remembering Daniel L. Stufflebeam

Abstract

On the passing of a distinguished evaluation pioneer like Daniel Stufflebeam, it is not only appropriate to recognize his contributions, but incumbent upon us to do so. A special section of the American Journal of Evaluation, curated by Chris Coryn (2017), does just that. In this memorial reflection, I want to pay homage not only to the man but to celebrate the evaluation standards he fathered. The standards define what program evaluation is. After nearly 40 years it is easy to take them for granted, but to do so impoverishes the profession’s historical journey and treats as inevitable a creation that almost was not, and would not have been, but for Dan Stufflebeam.