Seriously Seeking Fairness: Strategies for Crafting Non-partisan Evaluations in a Partisan World

Abstract

Non-partisan, as defined here, refers to an evaluation that is and is regarded by partisans of all persuasions as balanced, fair, and faithful, so that if methodological quality is high, debates focus on the implications of the findings for practice or policy, not on the credibility of the findings themselves. This paper examines, from an historical perspective, what strategies have been used to achieve non-partisan evaluation, how well these have worked, and whether, however hard we try, there is a limit after which our virtue is unrewarded.