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Evaluation policy is of considerable importance, especially in relation to

Metaevaluations are systematic reviews of evaluations to determine the quality of their processes and findings. The knowledge about evaluation quality that results from metaevaluation of multiple evaluations can be used to inform researchers' decisions about which studies to include in evaluation syntheses. Metaevaluations of multiple studies are also used to identify strengths and weaknesses in evaluation practice in order to develop evaluation capacity. This article discusses the multiple ways in which quality can be defined, the political and cultural contexts of metaevaluation, and issues surrounding use and misuse. A metaevaluation of evaluations of international agricultural research centers illustrates these topics.

Attention to evaluation quality is commonplace, even if sometimes implicit. Drawing on her 2010 Presidential Address to the American Evaluation Association, Leslie Cooksy suggests that evaluation quality depends, at least in part, on the intersection of three factors: (a) evaluator competency, (b) aspects of the evaluation environment or context, and (c) the level and nature of supportive resources that are available in the evaluation community. In a brief reaction to her views, Mel Mark discusses selected implications of Cooksy's approach and comments on the notion of evaluation quality itself.