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Civic Dictionary

Public Evaluation

Excerpted from: "Reinventing Citizenship: The Practice of Public Work," by the staff and partners of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, pp. 58-59.

What is public evaluation?

Public evaluation is the ability to pose a problem and assess how effective you have been in addressing it. It requires a conscious application of ideas to practice, and is a learned art. Public evaluation is intended to develop the civic confidence and capacities of citizens.

Why is the concept and practice of public evaluation important in a democratic society?

Public evaluation is an important part of making our public work, and the places associated with our work, schools for self-governance, or citizenship.

Evaluation usually means someone from the outside coming in to tell you what you did wrong. The evaluator is seen as being objective, or not having a stake in the outcome. Although outside assessments are often useful, evaluation is even more important as an art we learn to do ourselves in our work on a continuing basis.

Evaluation brings seriousness to public work. It directs our work toward larger goals or a mission. Without evaluation our work too often becomes a series of unrelated activities leading to failure or burnout.

Public evaluation is also a way of creating more democratic ownership of knowledge. In an age of information, what one knows, or the categories of knowledge with which one frames action, forms the basis of authority and validity in the larger world. Too often the framing of public work and the naming of lessons from it is left to experts at the top of the information hierarchy. Through a more democratic practice of evaluation, this knowledge can become a resource more broadly used. Public evaluation is one way citizens and citizen-professionals can work together to consciously create and name the categories or concepts that drive effective work.

When should we evaluate and who should be involved? What format should evaluation take?

Evaluation is about consciously knowing what is happening, what has happened, and what should happen. Evaluation, then, should take place whenever you (as an individual or group) need to learn from your actions, or to redirect work to better accomplish a collective mission. In-depth evaluation is especially important for those most closely associated with the planning of an action or strategy, and those whose leadership is being developed.

Evaluation can be used:

At the end of meetings
Did we accomplish our goals? What tasks were assigned to whom? What else needs to be done? What do we need to talk about next time?

After larger public meetings
Did we accomplish our goals? How well did we play our roles? What did we gain or lose in the event? What were the power dynamics? The self-interests? Did the event meet the self-interests of staff, key players? What need to be done to follow up?

To evaluate specific strategies
See questions above.

To evaluate the work as a whole at different stages
What were our purposes and goals? Did we meet them? Were they realistic? Did others become more important? What roles were we playing and how well have we played them? What could we do to improve our individual and collective work? What have we learned from the work?

Public actions involving significant individual or group energy, resources, or credibility usually generate strong emotions as well. Emotions should be named because they are an important part of public work. But they should be separated from the analysis during evaluation.

What about evaluating individuals?

We need to recognize that many people seek or avoid public life as a reaction to their own personal history. Therefore public critique can be very emotionally jarring if it is not artfully done. In particular, the work, problem, event, or goals need to be the focus of critique, not the character of the person being evaluated. It can be enormously freeing for the individual to have public discussion of their actions so that unstated opinion does not become the operating mode of the group. Most importantly, evaluation allows for public capacity development.

The Lazarus Project, an initiative of Project Public Life, has developed a set of rules for public evaluation of individuals:

Make "I" Statements
Always claim your thought or critique by saying
"I think/feel . . ."
State your critique within the framework of the larger outcome of the action
This keeps the focus upon public outcome rather than personal issues. The purpose of pubic evaluation is to be more effective in attaining your collective goals or mission. Personal critique is not the purpose of public evaluation.
Be accountable for posing another option if you disagree with one taken
This clarifies that your concern is the public outcome, and you are not responding from personal opinion. It also signals that you are accountable to the collective, public mission or goals of the organization/group.
The person critiqued must acknowledge that he or she has heard the critique
Remember that the purpose of evaluation is to learn from experience
It is not to affix blame.

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