of the Howard University Center for Researchon the Education of Students Placed At Risk (CRESPAR) and theTalent Development Model of School Reform. The CRESPAR TalentDevelopment (TD) evaluation approach is rooted in severaltraditions of evaluation that intentionally seek engagement withcontexts of practice. These traditions include responsive,participatory, empowerment, and culturally competent approaches toevaluation. The CRESPAR TD evaluation approach also takes up themesof inclusiveness and partnership advanced by the recent promotionof multiple methods in evaluation. With these themes, the TDevaluation approach is viably grounded in well-accepted evaluationconcepts and principles. The approach further seeks to bepractical, useful, formative, and empowering for the manyindividuals served by TD evaluations and to give“voice” to persons whose perspectives are oftenignored, minimized, or rejected in urban school settings. Beyond such grounding and ambitions, the CRESPAR TD evaluationframework seeks to re-position evaluation in low-income urbancontexts as accountable, not only for producing accurate andrelevant information on the program being evaluated, but also forenabling and contributing to the program’s social bettermentand social justice intentions. This re-positioning is effectedprimarily by a collaborative, co-constructionist model forevaluation in which CRESPAR program developers, implementers, andevaluators – along with key program stakeholders –partner together in envisioning, implementing, and evaluatingprograms that are responsive to and make cultural sense in thecontext at hand. CRESPAR TD evaluators are contextually andculturally engaged and are responsible for this engagement. Thisvolume highlights the approach’s five major themes: engagingstakeholders, co-construction, responsiveness, cultural andcontextual relevance, and triangulation of perspectives.

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