Sanders, James R.

(b. 1944, Williamsport, Pennsylvania). Ph.D. Research and Evaluation Methodology, University of Colorado; M.S.Ed. Educational Research, B.A. Chemistry, Bucknell University.

Sanders is Professor Emeritus at Western Michigan University and was on the faculty at Indiana University where he helped to create their first evaluation program. Before he came to the Evaluation Center at WMU to assist Dan Stufflebeam with its development, serving also as the center's Associate Director, Sanders was an evaluator for the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. He worked extensively with foundations and community-based organizations, including the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the United Way of America.

Sanders is a coauthor (along with Blaine Worthen and Jody Fitzpatrick) of one of the most popular evaluation textbooks, Program Evaluation: Alternative Approaches and Practical Guidelines, now in its third edition. Sanders also chaired the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation from 1988 to 1998. The committee has written program evaluation standards (The Program Evaluation Standards: How to Assess Evaluations of Educational Programs), including a revision in 1994, which have become a common means for judging the quality of evaluation itself. The Program Evaluation Standards presents, explains, and illustrates 30 standards to provide a guide for evaluating educational and training programs, projects, and materials in a variety of settings. Sanders' work has been directed at practitioners and [Page 386]aimed at improving evaluation practice. His book Evaluating School Programs: An Educator's Guide (now in its second edition) is an example of this focus.

His muses and intellectual influences are Campbell and Stanley, Egon Guba, Ayn Rand, Michael Scriven, Robert Stake, and Dan Stufflebeam.

Sanders has also dedicated his time to the profession of evaluation. He was a founding member of the Evaluation Network, one of the organizations that merged to form the American Evaluation Association. He has been a board member and President of AEA and received the Friend of Evaluation Award from the Michigan Association for evaluation. As President of AEA, Sanders created the Public Affairs Program and promoted evaluators' participation in public policy debates. He supported the first AEA Public Affairs Task Force on High Stakes Testing, and was a member of the task force. He has been recognized with the Distinguished Service Award from Western Michigan University.