Seriously seeking fairness: Strategies for crafting non-partisan evaluations in a partisan world

Non-partisan, as defined here, refers to an evaluation that is and is regar ded;by partisans of all persuasions as balanced, fair, and faithful, so tha t if methodological quality is high, debates focus on the implications of t he findings for practice or policy, not on the credibility of the findings themselves, This paper examines, from an historical perspective, what strat egies have been used to achieve non-partisan evaluation, how well these hav e worked, and whether, however hard we try, there is a limit after which ou r virtue is unrewarded.