Credibility

In evaluation, evaluators and evaluations themselves must not only be valid but also must be seen to be valid, which denotes credibility. Indeed, in naturalistic and participatory models of evaluation, credibility is an attribute of validity itself. In qualitative evaluation, trustworthiness is a criterion for judging the quality of the evaluation. To be trustworthy, or credible, the evaluation should make sense to stakeholders, be authentic, provide sufficient data and detail to make transfer of knowledge possible or from which to make generalizations, and explicate the process for arriving at conclusions. Any number of strategies may enhance the credibility of an evaluation, such as triangulation, peer debriefing, and member checking.