Tool: Interview Questions for evaluation consultant selection
From EvalTalk, the discussion group of the American Evaluation Association (AEA).
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What are the main reasons why you think a program should conduct an evaluation?
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What are the main standards and guiding principles for conducting evaluations?
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How would you determine if a program is ready to undergo an evaluation?
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How do you estimate the resources needed to conduct an evaluation? That is, how do you compute the costs of an evaluation, both in money and time (yourself and others)?
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If you had results from an evaluation that were based on quantitative information that conflicted with results from qualitative information, how would you resolve the conflict?
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If you were to conduct a mailed-out survey to program participants, how would you achieve a representative sample and ensure that your results were generalizable to all participants?
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Frequently evaluations involve various and independent branches and agencies that all have different expectations for the evaluation. If you had a conflict among participants in a program evaluation that could threaten the evaluation, how would you resolve the conflict? What steps would you take to proactively avoid conflict?
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Read any interesting articles on evaluation lately? In what journals? What was interesting about it? What other journals do you see regularly?
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Under what circumstances, if any, would you blow the whistle on a client?