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This question comes from Larissa, a graduate student in Arizona. Larissa write:

Hi Nicole,

I’m a graduate student currently taking a class about research and evaluation. I also just finished a course in evaluations within education and training.

My first assignment is to distinguish between evaluation and research and I must say that your post [“Ask Nicole: What’s the Difference Between Research and Evaluation?”] has given me the clearest examples of the difference. Thank you for that!

My question to you is can you please elaborate on when circumstances are more appropriate for research than evaluation? Having more of an evaluation background now, I tend to lean towards evaluation first. Is it just that research should be done before evaluation?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

In “Ask Nicole: What’s the Difference Between Research and Evaluation?“, I explained that how research and evaluation are both data collection and analysis tools. While research focuses on gaining or contributing new knowledge on a topic based on previous theories, evaluation is used to understand the effectiveness of a program for decision-making.

To answer Larissa’s question of whether research should be done before an evaluation, the answer is: It depends on the context (which is a very evaluator response.)

Do you have any questions related to social work, evaluation, reproductive justice? Curious about how I feel about a particular topic? Contact me and I’ll answer it!

This is probably the most common question you’ll hear about evaluation practice. Because I’m asked this question often, I would like to given my take on it.

To start, there are several differences between research and evaluation. Evaluation is a systematic way of figuring out how effective your programs and services are, and if the desired outcomes of the program/service line up with what participants are experiencing. You can do this in a variety of ways, including surveys, focus groups, interviews, and more. Evaluation can inform key stakeholders (which can include legislators, program participants, funders, nonprofit staff, etc.) how sustainable your program or service is.

In comparison, research is designed to seek new knowledge about a behavior or phenomenon and focuses on the methods of getting to that new knowledge (hypothesis, independent/dependent variables, etc.). In other words, research wants to know if a particular variable caused a particular effect (causation). Once testing is done, researchers can make research recommendations and publish their findings. However, one of the key differences between research and evaluation is that conducting an evaluation can lead to insights in what’s going well and what can be improved. In other words, evaluation shows how valuable your program or service is.

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