A Framework Featuring Steps and Standards for Program Evaluation

Every day, the Centers for Disease Control and Pre­ vention (CDC) focuses the world’s attention on issues that deserve to be in the public health spotlight. Visitors to the CDC Web site know that this spotlighting is not only a metaphor but also a prominent physical feature on the agency’s Internet home page. Through its Spot­ light section, the CDC summarizes at a glance the most important things happening in public health each day. During the week of September 17, 1999, that spotlight shone on program evaluation. The CDC’s attention to program evaluation con­ firmed what most practitioners have experienced in their own workplaces—that evaluation activities are becoming an inseparable part of public health practice. The Spotlight feature also coincided with the publica­ tion of a “Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health” (CDC, 1999). This framework was written to help the public health workforce gain a common under­ standing of evaluation concepts and to promote further