The Historical Development of Program Evaluation: Exploring Past and Present

The purpose of this article is to present the historical development and significant contributions leading to the current status of the program evaluation field. Program evaluation has been defined as “judging the worth or merit of something or the product of the process” (Scriven, 1991, p. 139). Guskey (2000) updated this definition stating that evaluation is a systematic process used to determine the merit or worth of a specific program, curriculum, or strategy in a specific context. The author describes seven significant time periods in the development of program evaluation and identifies five evaluation approaches currently used by practitioners. This article concludes by providing the reader with insight to the future of program evaluation