Alkin, Marvin C.

(b. 1934, New York). Ed.D. Stanford University; M.A. Education, and B.A. Mathematics, San Jose State College.

Alkin was instrumental in helping to shape the fieldof evaluation through his work on evaluation utilization and comparative evaluation theory. He drewattention to ways of categorizing evaluation theoriesand provided the discipline with a systematic analysisof the way in which evaluation theories develop. Asa professor, Alkin developed novel ways of teaching graduate-level evaluation courses, including the use ofsimulation and role-playing.

His interest in systems analysis was cultivatedthrough his association with Professor Fred MacDonaldin the Educational Psychology Department at StanfordUniversity. His thinking and early writings on cost-benefit and cost-effective analysis were fostered by Professor H. Thomas James, also at Stanford University. He was also influenced by his collegial relationshipswith other evaluators, such as Dan Stufflebeam, BobStake, and Michael Quinn Patton.

Alkin founded and served as the Director of the Center for the Study of Evaluation at the Universityof California, Los Angeles (UCLA), which gave himthe opportunity to expand his thinking about issuesrelated to evaluation theory. He was Editor-in-Chief for the Encyclopedia of Educational Research (6thedition) and Editor of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (1995-1997). He is also a FoundingEditor of Studies in Educational Evaluation. Hereceived the American Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award fromthe American Evaluation Association for his contributions to the theories of evaluation.

He is a grandfather of five grandchildren and adedicated UCLA basketball fan, having attended thefull season every year since 1965.