Developmental Evaluation in Theory versus Practice: Lessons from Three Developmental Evaluation Pilots
Developmental Evaluation (DE) practitioners turn to DE theory to make design and implementation decisions. However, DE practitioners can experience difficulty in fully understanding how to implement DE using theory because it is method agnostic (Patton, 2016). Instead, DE is a principle-based approach. This article presents an empirical examination of how DE theory was (or was not) applied during three DE pilots. Our analysis aims to better understand how DE theory is used in practice to expand the evidence base and strengthen future DE implementation.