After what I expect are some of the usual fits and starts, this volume came together. Legislative program evaluation is justifiably obsessed with utilization. Simply stated, legislatures commission evaluations they expect to use. Further, legislators expect evaluation results that are timely, sensible, and comprehensible. Such expectations are not unreasonable.
Legislators are, after all, the customer.
It is the evaluators themselves who sometimes complicate matters. Coming from auditing, academic, evaluation, and other professional backgrounds, the evaluators involved realize that the probability of utilization raises the stakes. Reports that are going to be used must meet a high standard of rigor. Of course, they must also still be timely, sensible, and comprehensible. And there's the rub.