Date: Sunday, January 25, 2026
Hello AEA365 readers! We’re excited to kick off Government Evaluation TIG Week, a time dedicated to exploring how evaluation strengthens public institutions and enhance government programs and services.
The Government Evaluation Topical Interest Group (TIG) exists to provide a forum for sharing best practices, evaluation findings, and professional development for those working on evaluations that improve government programs or follow governmental policies. Founded in 1990 under the leadership of Dr. David Bernstein, GovEval TIG is one of AEA’s oldest standing TIGs. Our members include government employees, contractors, and others committed to advancing evaluation in the public sector.
As we prepared for this week’s lineup, we reviewed all 47 Government Evaluation TIG blog posts published between 2015 and 2025. Using thematic analysis, we identified trends that reflect how the discussion in this space has evolved over the past decade.
The chart shows how strongly key themes stood out over time in Government Evaluation TIG blog posts from 2015 to 2025. Each line represents a theme’s relative emphasis for a given year, measured using a standard metric (TF-IDF Share) that highlights what was uniquely important in that year’s writing. Higher points indicate themes that dominated the conversation. Gaps in 2020 and 2023 reflect years with no GovEval TIG posts (or no posts that we were able to identify through our search).
What do the peaks tell us?
Together, these trends set the stage for this week’s posts. These new posts demonstrate careful thinking about how to tackle today’s pressing questions in government evaluation.
Here’s a preview of the topics you’ll see during this year’s Government Evaluation TIG Week:
Each post offers practical insights and lessons learned from real-world evaluation experiences. We invite you to read, reflect, and join the conversation in the comments.
Want to learn more about Government Evaluation TIG? Visit AEA’s TIG page and explore resources on evidence-based policymaking, evaluation standards, and data governance.
The American Evaluation Association is hosting Gov’t Eval TIG Week with our colleagues in the Government Evaluation Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from our Gov’t Eval TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this AEA365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the AEA365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an AEA365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to AEA365@eval.org. AEA365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.