How Do You Answer "What is Evaluation?"

This event was originally scheduled for January 21 and now has been rescheduled!

Based on AEA’s mini-series in summer of 2020, MNEA is asking six of our past-presidents how they answer the most dreaded question for evaluators: “What do you do?”

Evaluators have their own space at AEA and MNEA where they can talk about their work without a glitch. However, we sometimes have trouble explaining our profession to colleagues who are not from evaluation spaces.

The usage, value, and need for evaluations is not always commonly understood by outsiders to the field. Even within our membership, how evaluation is defined and what it looks like greatly differ based on content area, background, education, and interest.

To provide insight into the purpose behind evaluation, our past-presidents will explain 1) what evaluation means to them, 2) how they approach evaluation, and 3) what they find rewarding in their work.

Join us from on February 18, 2021 from 12:00 - 1:30 pm to learn from a variety of perspectives on evaluation and engage in breakout rooms that help formulate or refine you own elevator speech.

AEA Evaluation Competencies:

• PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE DOMAIN—focuses on what makes evaluators distinct as practicing professionals.
• CONTEXT DOMAIN—focuses on understanding the unique circumstances, multiple perspectives, and changing settings of evaluations and their users/stakeholders.
• INTERPERSONAL DOMAIN—focuses on human relations and social interactions that ground evaluator effectiveness for professional practice throughout the evaluation.