Metaevaluation

Metaevaluation is the evaluation of evaluations (and of evaluators). It must not be confused with meta-analysis, which is a particular and relatively recent development in research integration; namely, the synthesis of multiple research studies of the same phenomenon, studies that may or may not be [Page 250]evaluative, into an overall conclusion. Meta-analyses in the social sciences are typically syntheses of merely empirical studies, not evaluative studies. The literature review that is often part of an evaluation project will often conclude with a meta-analysis that has an evaluative conclusion because it is integrating a number of evaluative studies; however, that is not, as such, a metaevaluation but merely a synthesis of evaluations. The key element in metaevaluation (here, MEV) is that it evaluates the evaluations to ...