Date: Friday, November 13, 2026
Hello! I’m Dr. Kinsey Simone, an Assistant Professor at Tennessee Tech University and an external evaluator for federally funded educational initiatives. My work has led me to consider how evaluators communicate the purpose, value, and scope of evaluation to educators, principal investigators (PIs), and other project stakeholders.
Recently, I attended the 2026 NSF S-STEM conference, where I participated in an insightful session focused on evaluation. Interestingly, I was among the few attendees who identified as evaluators. Throughout the discussion, questions emerged about what evaluation actually entails, how evaluators should be compensated, and what responsibilities evaluators have within grant-funded projects.
These questions highlighted something I have increasingly recognized in my own practice: Although evaluation is an integral component of many grant-funded projects, stakeholders may have vastly different understandings of its purpose and value.
For evaluators, this presents an opportunity to make our work more transparent, collaborative, and accessible.
Evaluation is not simply an end-of-project report documenting whether objectives were achieved. Formative evaluation provides ongoing feedback that can inform implementation, identify challenges, and support continuous improvement. Summative evaluation examines outcomes and the extent to which a project achieved its intended goals.
During initial meetings with project teams, explicitly discuss how evaluation findings will be used throughout the grant period, not merely at its conclusion. This helps stakeholders recognize evaluation as an ongoing resource rather than a final deliverable.
Although research and evaluation share methodological approaches, their primary purposes often differ. Research generally seeks to generate and disseminate knowledge that extends beyond a particular context, whereas evaluation focuses on understanding the merit, worth, significance, or effectiveness of a specific program or initiative (the evaluand).
When working with research-oriented PIs, clarify how evaluation questions differ from research questions. Discuss how evaluation findings can support project-specific decision-making while complementing broader research objectives.
Evaluation requires substantial time, methodological expertise, stakeholder engagement, data collection and analysis, and reporting. Yet conversations about evaluator compensation sometimes overlook these responsibilities.
Compensation is particularly important for independent consultants whose evaluation work constitutes their primary source of income, rather than supplementing an existing institutional salary.
Encourage project teams to develop evaluation budgets based on anticipated responsibilities, deliverables, and estimated hours rather than treating evaluation as a fixed percentage of the overall grant. Appropriate compensation supports rigorous, ethical, and sustainable evaluation practice.
Evaluators are not interchangeable. Our disciplinary backgrounds, methodological expertise, theoretical orientations, and professional experiences influence how we approach evaluation.
Encourage stakeholders to discuss an evaluator’s approach before establishing a partnership. Alignment between project needs and an evaluator’s expertise can strengthen collaboration while recognizing the diversity of perspectives within our profession.
My experience at the NSF S-STEM conference reminded me that we cannot assume stakeholders understand evaluation simply because it is required by a funding agency. As evaluators, part of our responsibility is communicating not only what we do, but why our work matters.
Perhaps one of the most valuable contributions we can make is helping others understand evaluation before the evaluation even begins.
Generative AI (ChatGPT, OpenAI) was used to assist with the initial drafting and organization of this blog post. The ideas, professional experiences, and perspectives presented are my own. I reviewed, revised, and approved the final content.
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