Chapter 3: The Future of Evaluation in Society: Top Ten Trends Plus One

In celebration of Michael Scriven’s many distinguished contributions to evaluation, it is altogether appropriate that we look to the future, as he has requested, but do so in a way that acknowledges the integral interconnections between past, present, and future. The context for this presentation is his important and visionary paper, “Conceptual Revolutions in Evaluation: Past, Present, and Future.”

As an organizing rubric to undertake the challenge of considering evaluation’s future, I am going to use the framework of a top ten list. There are top ten lists for all kinds of things:

There are thousands of such lists on the Internet, including top ten lists of top ten lists. Here’s one example: