Читать книгу Evaluation in Today’s World - Veronica G. Thomas - Страница 141

The 1960s and early 1970s represent the “Golden Age” of evaluation (Rossi & Wright, 1984) with a vision of the federal government being a major patron of large-scale social experimentation. The government passed legislation that required recipients of federal funds to set aside monies for evaluation of program results. In 1978, the federal government passed an act requiring all federal cabinet departments to establish high-level evaluation units, known as Offices of Inspector General, and many agencies had created internal evaluation offices and units (Datta, 2003). During the 1980s, however, there were major reductions in evaluations, especially at the federal level, under the Ronald Reagan administration with budget cutbacks in human services and entitlement programs. By 2000, there was a renewed interest in program evaluation, particularly at the federal level. The sections that follow highlight some of the major legislations, events, and people influencing the evaluation field between 1960 and 2000.