As a faculty member in an evaluation program I'm constantly trying to ensure that our students become competent evaluators prior to graduation. The question is, "What makes an evaluator competent?" I've struggled with this quite a bit lately. Can I really ensure in 4 years (sometimes more) that my students are capable of conducting successful and ethical evaluations on their own? I'd like to think that we can. My colleagues and I spend countless hours going over our curriculum and making sure it covers the various competencies discussed in both the ECPE and CES frameworks....but is that enough?
One thing that constantly bugs me is that anyone can call themselves an evaluator. A person takes one evaluation class (or sometimes none), a few research methods/statistics courses and they label themselves as an evaluator. This drives me nuts!!! Many potential clients are counting on their evaluators to know what they are doing....if we don't have a certification or a license to ensure that the evaluator is competent in their field how do we know when someone is a competent evaluator?
Should we all have to apply for certification or a license to practice? If yes, what would the test(s) look like?
I'd love to hear others suggestions and comments on this.
1 comment:
I love this question! Coming from someone with a PhD in evaluation, I'd love to see a little more standardization. But as soon as you start to go down that hole you find its an intense debate. Let's watch our friends to the north for a few years and see if they implode or thrive.
Post a Comment