What evaluation criteria are used in policy evaluation research: A cross-field literature review

Abstract

This literature review offers a comprehensive overview of the use of evaluation criteria across five policy fields: social services, land-use planning, teaching in higher education, vocational education, and the environment. Though it is a key part of the evaluation process, the question of how criteria are defined, chosen, and applied generates surprisingly little debate among the evaluation community. In evaluation practice, criteria are often taken for granted – and occasionally even used in ways that are neither explicit nor transparent. This cross-field literature review shows a strong presence of routinized evaluation criteria (relating to the specifics of each policy field), while some new sets of higher-degree criteria also emerge in the face of social challenges relating to sustainability, public acceptance, or social justice. Criteria development draws on both inductive bottom-up processes (which can include policy stakeholders) and top-down deductive processes (which derive criteria from the literature, as well as from national and international standards). A more profound reflection on evaluation criteria (that is, the dimensions used by societies to assess the success of policy interventions) might be required in the future of evaluation research and planning; a deeper cross-field dialogue could support this endeavor.