Ethical Principles and Evaluation Standards

This study asked three questions: (a) What ethical principles are available to guide program evaluators? (b) how do the standards developed by the Joint Committee on Standards match up with ethical principles? and (c) what are the implications for refinement of the standards, training evaluators, and practicing evaluation? Kitchener's five ethical principles: autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, and fidelity appear to have relevance for evaluation practice. Although consumers and novices were less likely to reach consensus than were experts, professional evaluators reached consensus in matching the standards to the ethical principles. The results also indicate not all of the Kitchener's principles are fully represented in the standards.