When (not if) evaluation flexibility is desirable - Examples from the CPHPE initiative

The evaluation literature often debates whether evaluators should be flexib le in evaluation design and activities in order to collaborate with program directors and be responsive to programming needs. Two conditions are speci fied under which evaluation flexibility is not only desirable but essential . Two examples from the cluster evaluation of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation' s Community Partnerships for Health Professions Education initiative are pr ovided to illustrate why flexibility under these conditions proved to be es sential. One of the examples, related to the "community" involvement in the initiative, illustrates the need for flexibility as programs experience go als clarification. The other example, related to the coincidental national health care reform efforts, illustrates the need for flexibility both to ca pture programs' efforts to protect their integrity and to ensure against sp urious conclusions as a result of external turbulence in policy environment s. How the cluster evaluation ream addressed these issues is also described (C) 1999 Sage Publications,Inc.