Does failure play a role in evaluation research?
Not as much as it should. I have written four books and about 60 articles on the subject of the effects of research and evaluation on decision making. In the early 1970s, I proposed establishing a journal called Null, which would publish articles about programs that had no effect. Nobody would support my idea! There’s all this knowledge about what doesn’t work that is not getting out there. The problem is that people tend to repeat what sounds appealing without knowing if it works in the first place. For example, in last 20 years in education, things have changed so fast, the old things come back and get another shot!
