Leigh's AEA Reflections

The AEA conference offered an opportunity to see a new city (I was born only 250 miles away in Dallas, but had never been to San Antonio), reunite with colleagues from across the country, spend quality time with my officemates, and hear about a variety of exciting evaluation techniques. While I was only in San Antonio for two days, I made the most of the time. I attended one session that featured Michael Quinn Patton discussing a systems/strategy approach to evaluation based on the work of Henry Mintzenberg who published Tracking Strategies: Toward a General Theory of Strategy Formation (2008). Rather than evaluating programs or activities, this is a method to examine strategies and ideas. One example highlighted evaluating end-of-life care for terminally ill patients. The evaluators used a historical approach to review type of care received in an effort to determine the systems approach of the organization. The upcoming issue of New Directions for Evaluation will highlight this type of evaluation. In another session, we learned about attempts in New Zealand to develop a set of evaluator competencies. The competencies center around cultural awareness and respect as emphasized in the Treaty of Waitangi (learned some history too). Two discussants furthered the conversation highlighting issues with centering evaluations around cultural competencies (potential of becoming one-dimensional or just including rhetoric about inclusion) and the importance of useable evaluation reports that provide recommendations for improvement. Min, Tara, Ching Ching, and I also met unexpectedly at a session on evaluating higher education coursework that was quite entertaining. The presenter highlighted real evaluation attempts and efforts to improve from within his institution that were often unflattering (if you give too many As, give fewer As). Grant and I presented during the final session of the conference on Saturday afternoon. While we had a small group, we had a spirited discussion and we have even had requests for more information about our work. Enjoyable two days!