Consumer-Oriented Evaluation Approach

Centrality of the Consumer

At the core of the consumer-oriented evaluation approach is the stance that evaluation should be oriented toward the needs of the consumer. Scriven argues that an evaluation’s task and goal should be directed toward the consumer (end user) primarily and, to a much lesser extent, the program developers and other stakeholders. Scriven recognizes that consumers’ values may not always align with the values of developers, funders, or even the delivery partners. The author also observes that the consumer is not necessarily concerned with goals that program developers set out to achieve with an evaluand nor should they have to contend with what developers’ intentions are. Rather, what truly matters to consumers is that an object has value, that is, merit, worth, and/or significance.

Goal of Evaluation

[Page 390]The significance of the consumer-oriented evaluation approach is best understood in context of the historical confluences that gave rise to it. One major source has been the limitations and flaws associated with objective-oriented approaches to evaluation or what has sometimes been referred to as Tylerian approach to evaluation. Proponents of Ralph Tyler’s approach to evaluation see it as the determination of whether objectives have been achieved or not.

Scriven’s critique of Tyler’s approach is that conceptualizing evaluation in a goal-oriented way is narrow, for goals, as prescribed by program developers, can be flawed, incomplete, unrealistic, or inadequate in addressing the social ills that prompted the creation of the intervention in the first place. Evaluating in this fashion ignores the true needs of the consumer. This stance is echoed in contemporary discourse that emphasizes the importance of placing the learner first.

The methodological implication is that evaluation is not merely a technical exercise in measurement between what was set out and what was the case in reality, as is the case with evaluation conducted in the Tylerian tradition, but in bringing evidence to bear in reaching an informed judgment about an object’s value independent of what developers set out to do. Scriven implores evaluators to understand all effects of an intervention, unconstrained by what developers had sought to achieve, and assess the needs of the users. On the bases of these two assessments, the evaluator advances a judgment concerning the value of the object. The determination of merit, worth, and significance of an evaluand is the singular goal of evaluation.

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