The study concluded that citizen judgments must be used judiciously to avoid bias, but that such judgments can be predictive of community responsiveness and receptivity to future collaboration. Program evaluators have paid more attention to political factors in recent years as evaluation has become a stronger force in program design. Hence, attention to public sentiment needs to be a high priority. For principals and superintendents, the purpose of program evaluation is to provide information to help them make decisions regarding programs. In general, principals feel that the benefits of evaluations are minimal because of their inability to measure program components that are of real importance, or because principals' own proximity to the everyday realities of the educational process gives them what they feel is a better basis for understanding needs and implementing change.
Superintendents tend to be more positive about the value of program evaluation.
In particular, evaluations that reported deficiencies and discussed possible solutions were highly rated. Second in importance are personal meetings with evaluation personnel. Each year the committee should conduct a review of one or two programs, so that each program receives careful scrutiny once every five years. In innovative programs, defined as those still in a research and development phase, evaluators help identify goals and develop a strategy for accomplishing these goals. Another new role for the evaluator is translating policy questions developed by school boards and legislators into the more precise questions of program evaluation.