Worthen, Blaine R.

(b. 1936, Utah). Ph.D. Educational Psychology and Research, The Ohio State University; M.S., B.S., University of Utah.

Worthen is Professor of Psychology at Utah State University and previously held faculty positions at The Ohio State University and the University of Colorado. A career evaluator, he was Director of Research and Evaluation at Northwest Regional Laboratory (with responsibility for directing federally mandated evaluations in 17 states) and Director of the Western Institute of Research and Evaluation (an evaluation-contracting organization that has conducted over 350 evaluations for local, state, and national clients, such as the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the U.S. Air Force). Worthen has contributed significantly to conceptions of evaluation that have emerged in the past 40 years. He was the senior author, in 1973, of one of the first comprehensive evaluation texts, Educational Evaluation: Theory and Practice (with James R. Sanders). This text was the first to review and analyze seminal evaluation thinking. Its sequel in 1987, Educational Evaluation: Alternative Approaches and Practical Guidelines (with James R. Sanders), summarizes and categorizes all of the extant evaluation theories and models into a conceptual structure. The expanded 1997 edition of this text, Program Evaluation: Alternative Approaches and Practical Guidelines (with James R. Sanders and Jody L. Fitzpatrick), extends program evaluation to all fields, and the fourth edition includes more recent, inclusive advocacy and empowerment evaluation theories. In these texts, Worthen has promoted an eclectic multimethod approach to evaluation, foreshadowing more recent proposals for mixed-methods evaluations. Primary influences on his conception of evaluation include Egon Guba and Michael Scriven.

Also the author of numerous professional articles and texts on various practical and applied evaluation issues, Worthen was the senior author of Evaluating Educational and Social Programs (with Karl R. White, 1987) and Measurement and Evaluation in the Schools (with Walter R. Borg and Karl R. White, 1993). Many evaluation practitioners have adopted his simple steps for designing and conducting evaluations. As Editor of the American Journal of Evaluation and Evaluation Practice, Worthen has contributed to many important dialogs about issues confronting the evaluation profession, including recent debates about certification of evaluators.

In 1997, he received the American Evaluation Association's Myrdal Award for Outstanding Evaluation Practitioner. He had previously received the American Educational Research Association's Best Evaluation Study award.

[Page 453]Throughout his career, Worthen has been actively involved in preparing future evaluators. In that role, he directed Utah State University's Research and Evaluation Methodology doctoral program (one of four evaluation training programs NSF selected to train evaluators for NSF projects). He also mentored the recipient of AEA's Guttentag Award in 2000 for Most Outstanding Young Evaluator. He has directed more than 200 evaluation workshops and seminars for national professional associations and the Evaluators' Institute.

Worthen's top priorities are his family and his faith, and his favorite pastimes are art, writing poetry, and reading C. S. Lewis and Neal A. Maxwell.