Professionalism in evaluation: Development and validation of a theory-based assessment tool in the U.S. context

Sandra Nyashaddai Ayoo

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2025, vol. 111, issue C

Abstract: While professionalization of program evaluation is garnering increasing attention in the literature, a notable gap exists in the absence of a validated, theory-based framework to both comprehend and empirically assess the attributes of a professional evaluator. This study contributes to the debate on the professionalism of evaluators in two ways: by elaborating a multidimensional, theory-based conceptualization of evaluator professionalism, and by developing and testing a professionalism self-assessment tool for novice and practicing evaluators to assess their levels of professionalism. The five dimensions of the tool developed using the sociological model were: expertise, innovation and research, professional autonomy, ethical dispositions, and credentialing. The model was validated using data from online survey administered to a random sample of 2000 members of the American Evaluation Association drawn from the 2018 membership directory. This study provides evidence that the professionalism assessment tool used with both novice and experienced evaluators produced reliable scores and demonstrated validity in measuring key attributes of evaluator professionalism.

Keywords: Evaluator professionalism; Credentialing; Program evaluation; Validation study; Theory-based study; Multidimensional assessment tool (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149718925000801
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:epplan:v:111:y:2025:i:c:s0149718925000801

DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2025.102613

Access Statistics for this article

Evaluation and Program Planning is currently edited by Jonathan A. Morell

More articles in Evaluation and Program Planning from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().