The key difference between community-based evaluation and other types of evaluation lies in understanding and accommodating the unique situations of communities, their leadership, their social and political climates, and their perception of needs. This volume of New Directions for Evaluation examines how to improve approaches to evaluation in community organizations, emphasizing the need to assess the fit between evaluators? skills and styles, and the cultural reality of communities. The author--experienced evaluators and community-based program leaders--describe choices about evaluation practice that are available to the evaluator, the program, and the community. They also present an effective evaluation prescreening tool, which has been successfully used to match evaluation plans with particular community program evaluation needs, resources, and commitments.

This is the 83rd issue of the quarterly journal New Directions for Evaluation.