Research on Evaluation Influence in India: Theorizing Beyond Process and Results to Design

Abstract

This study analyzes evaluation influence theories to understand their unified contributions to a conceptual framework for research on evaluation influence (RoEI) in non-western contexts. Specifically, these theories are analyzed according to their usefulness for interpreting the consequences of the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER)—a cyclical, large-scale educational monitoring and evaluation effort in India. An ethnographic case study of ASER facilitates an empirical investigation of the field's evaluation influence theories and uncovers a new source of influence—evaluation design. The study's findings challenge a common belief in the field: that evaluation process and results are the two fountainheads of evaluation impact. Design, as a distinct third source of influence, gives rise to a novel form of evaluation consequence—design diffusion. The phenomenon of design diffusion illuminates why ASER's model for evaluation has been adopted by several other Global South nations.