Dismissing the goals: A comparison of four goal-dismissive goal-free evaluations

This article provides a descriptive review of four goal-free evaluations (GFE). GFE is an evaluation model where the evaluator conducts the evaluation without knowledge of or reference to the evaluand’s stated goals. The four non-randomly sampled evaluation approaches represent articulated evaluation models in which the evaluators ignore the goals of the intervention or project. Data collection consisted of document analyses supplemented by semi-structured interviews with the models’ creators. The findings from these case studies include descriptions of the evaluation models, the models’ relationship to GFE, and eight commonalities shared among the four models. The conclusion of this study is that these GFEs are similar to other GFEs described in the literature in that they examine outcomes as reported by the intervention’s consumers, focus on collecting qualitative data, and use their evaluations to supplement a larger goal-based evaluation strategy.