e-valuation

If you doubt that neo-liberalism dominates the educational reform landscape take a look at this NYT story, which does a nice job of following the Gates Foundation money and how the spending has influenced the adoption of national curriculum standards, worked against teacher unions, and infiltrated school districts, think tanks and even the unions. This strategy is not new and is exactly what right wing Christian groups have done to influence schools by getting elected/appointed to school board positions. In both cases, there is something unsavory about the subterfuge, the lack of transparency, the buying of influence… as opposed to public deliberations about the schools we want and how to get them.

While this document from the IBM Center for the Business of Government Using Online Tools to Engage The Public, focuses on strategies for governments to engage the public in issues, there are a number of strategies and ideas that make sense for evaluators thinking about how to engage stakeholders in the evaluation process. The discussion focuses on the use of online strategies, a particularly useful focus when evaluators are working across sites and geographic areas.

There are 10 strategies in all, 4 for collaboration, 2 for surveying perceptions and opinions, and 4 for prioritizing ideas offered, complete with specific suggestions for software and an illustrative example of each.