Really New Directions in Evaluation: Young Evaluators' Perspectives: New Directions for Evaluation, Number 131 (J–B PE Single Issue (Program) Evaluation)

This issue of New Directions for Evaluation (NDE) marks a milestone?the25th anniversary of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). NDE is anofficial publication of AEA and has been a crucial means for theAssociation to foster and promote the professionalization of evaluationthrough thematic discussions of theory and practice in evaluation. NDEwas first published in 1978 under the name New Directions for ProgramEvaluation, although the title became New Directions for Evaluation in 1995 in acknowledgment of the broader scope of evaluation. The currentissue of NDE, on the 25th anniversary of AEA, looks not back but ahead.Because NDE is a thematic and guest-edited journal it tends to favormore mature, self-assured voices in evaluation. The journal format doesnot lend itself easily to showcasing the voices of novice evaluators, thosejust entering the field and who will be the next generation of evaluationpractitioners and theoreticians. As such, NDE has chosen on this anniversary to highlight those voices. Included are a number of chapters thatbuild on what evaluation has already learned from other disciplines byintroducing us to new possibilities. We are also challenged in the chaptersto think about techniques or methods we use, both at a practicaland conceptual level. Some chapters raise questions about who evaluatorsare, how they interact with others, and the roles they assume in theirpractice. Some young evaluators are confronting, in various ways, conundrumsin thinking about and doing evaluation within organizations, eitherfrom an external or internal perspective. And issues in usingtechnology in evaluation or challenges in evaluating technology areconsidered.

Sandra Mathison is the author of Really New Directions in Evaluation: Young Evaluators’ Perspectives: New Directions for Evaluation, Number 131, published by Wiley.