Understanding Program Evaluation: Formative and Summative Perspectives

According to Smith and Larimer (2009), program evaluation is all about determining the value of a program or policy with respect to a given criteria; a systematic attempt to assess whether a program or policy is good or worthy. (Smith and Larimer:2009) The most common categorization of evaluation comes in pair: the formative and summative evaluation; and, the process and outcome evaluation. (Smith and Larimer:2009) The authors viewed formative and summative evaluation as something that could be distinguished by timing and by the intent of the individual conducting the study. Formative studies are undertaken in the early stages and are intended to inform the development of a program or policy, and essentially asks: ‘should we change anything that we are doing?’” (Smith and Larimer:2009) On the other hand, summative evaluations are done at a different part of a program or policy life cycle; the basic role of a summative evaluation is to decide whether to expand, contract, terminate, or

Process evaluations focus on what a policy is actually doing and are oriented toward issues such as compliance (assessing whether a policy or program meet the laws and regulations that authorize and govern its operation) and auditing (assessing whether a target population is receiving the resources or services mandated by the policy or program). (Smith and Larimer:2009) In contrast to a process evaluation, outcome evaluation seeks to measure and assess what a policy has actually achieved. (Smith and Larimer:2009)
The Defense Center of Excellence released a guide back in 2012 enumerating three types of program evaluation including the aforementioned process evaluation and outcome evaluation and adds another to the list; the outcome evaluation. The program evaluation guide states that these three types of program evaluation operate in a hierarchical level based on