In Chapter Four, Boulmetis and Dutwin examine the Evaluator’s Program Description (EPD). The EPD is a guide that provides evaluators with information that can be used to develop questions for their evaluations. Also, it provides a roadmap for selecting the model that will be used to facilitate evaluations. The chapter begins by describing a few of the underlying assumptions the authors consider when explaining this EPD. Initially, they provide the assumption that evaluators will have identified the program needs and plans to address them before creating the EPD. Also, evaluators should have determined clear standards.
The next section of chapter four examines how the EPD tells evaluators what they want to understand about the program. First, the EPD represents the program goals and objectives. Second, it exposes the evaluator to the activities the program has planned for accomplishing those objectives. Lastly, it establishes the measurements and criteria used to judge whether those objectives have been satisfied. Each of these criteria is equally crucial to the success of the evaluation. Boulmetis and Dutwin note that EPDs vary in focus depending upon who conducts the review and who is the client. With that said, the evaluator needs to identify the recipients of the report. This might require the evaluator to prepare a separate EPD for each recipient. From there, the authors shift the focus of the
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The authors suggest the initial phase should be for the evaluator to meet with all program stakeholders. The evaluator will share their understanding of the program and will receive feedback about any gaps in understanding and scope. Once the evaluator outlines the EPD, they can then identify the activities that will be used to monitor and evaluate the program. The authors end this section by suggesting the evaluator can use the EPD and the purpose of the evaluation to select the model for