Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants
Goal-Free Evaluation: A potential model for the evaluation of social work programs
Department
School of Social Work
College
College of Community and Public Service
Date Range
2013-2014
Disciplines
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
Goal-free evaluation (GFE) is an evaluation model where the evaluator is deliberately kept from the stated (or implied) goals and objectives of the program; this is accomplished by appointing a screener to keep goal-related information from the goal-free evaluator. Screening the evaluator from program goals is designed to control bias inherent in goal-based evaluation (GBE), a bias that contaminates the evaluators ability to see the programs true outcomes and true merit. Although GFE has been around for more than half a century, GBE continues to dominate evaluation practice and the literature on GFE remains sparse and highly theoretical. This article introduces social workers to GFE, provides a brief history of the model, discusses some of the theoretical arguments for and against it, and then attempts to articulate actual principles and operations for conducting a GFE.
Conference Name
American Evaluation Association Annual Conference
Conference Location
Washington DC
ScholarWorks Citation
Youker, Brandon and Ingraham, Lyza, "Goal-Free Evaluation: A potential model for the evaluation of social work programs" (2014). Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants. 687.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/fsdg/687
