DESCRIPTORS IDENTIFIERS

The political processes involved in an academic program evaluation are discussed. The focus is on how evaluative information is politically linked to programmatic decisions Within the context of various organizational and evaluative utilization Models. To examine the explanatory power of the various theories and models, information from a program evaluation conducted at a small public liberal arts university is examined. The scopeof this program evaluation is as follows: to obtain a systematic view of the relative strengths,and weaknesses of each department, and to use the feedback to improve'tne programs; to have participants rankorder each of the 19 academic programs on nine criteria; and to tatget future 'retource allocations to program changes. Attention is directed to the following issues that may affect how evaluative information is linked to programmatic decisions: stages of the evaluation process, a distinction between the reasons and motives for the evaluation