Читать книгу Evaluation in Today’s World - Veronica G. Thomas - Страница 170

There are too numerous examples of federal and foundation support for evaluation capacity building to discuss in this chapter. The NSF is one federal agency that has substantially contributed to the evolving status of the evaluation field, having funded evaluator training centers, institutes, and programs in STEM areas to address the shortage of evaluators. These included collaborations and/or support for university degree programs and short-term professional programs for faculty and advanced graduate students. Some centers that received substantial federal funding and devoted part of their efforts to evaluation include facilities at Northwestern University, the Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University, and the Center for Instructional Research and Curriculum Evaluation at the University of Illinois. In early 2000s, the NSF funded an Evaluation Training Institute at Howard University for midlevel evaluators designed to broaden their knowledge of evaluation models, methods, standards, and guiding principles, as well as raise their awareness and understanding of the influence of culture and context. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Colorado Trust, and Annie E. Casey Foundation have also played a major role in efforts to diversify both the talent pool of evaluators and the theories and methods utilized by evaluators through either its funding to professional associations or its own initiatives.