The CIPP Model for Program Evaluation

Abstract

This chapter is a review and update of the so-called CIPP Model¹ for evaluation. That model (Stufflebeam, 1966) was developed in the late 1960s as one alternative to the views about evaluations that were most prevalent at that time — those oriented to objectives, testing, and experimental design. It emerged with other new conceptualizations, especially those developed by Scriven (1966) and Stake (1967). (For a discussion of these historical developments, see Chapter 1 of this book.) The CIPP approach was applied in many institutions; for example, the Southwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Austin, Texas; the National Center for Vocational and Technical Education; the U.S. Office of Education; and the school districts in Columbus, Toledo, and Cincinnati, Ohio; Dallas, Forth Worth, Houston, and Austin, Texas; and Saginaw, Detriot, and Lansing, Michigan. It was the subject of research and development by Adams (1971), Findlay (1979), Nevo (1974), Reinhard (1972), Root (1971), Webster (1975), and others. It was the central topic of the International Conference on the Evaluation of Physical Education held in Jyvaskyla, Finland in 1976 and was used as the advance organizer to group the evaluations that were presented and discussed during that week-long conference. It was also the central topic of the Eleventh National Phi Delta Kappa Symposium on Educational Research, and, throughout the 1970s it was referenced in many conferences and publications. It was most fully explicated in the Phi Delta appa book, Educational Evaluation and Decision Making (Stufflebeam et al., 1971) and most fully implemented in the Dallas Independent School District. Its conceptual and operational forms have evolved in response to critiques, applications, research, and parallel developments; and it continues to be referenced and applied in education and other fields.

The most important purpose of program evaluation is not to prove but to improve