Citation

Kamis E. Eval. Program Plann. 1979; 2(1): 7-12.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0149-7189(79)90040-5

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Need assessment, a frail and weak offspring of evaluation and planning is in both vogue and a struggle for survival. A prevailing requirement for social and health programs, need assessment has become the "in thing." Still, ten references to need assessment, once probed, are likely to mean ten different things. It is possible, that premature push for poorly understood technology and concepts resulted in the evolvement of need assessment into multimeaning and multi-method activities. This paper presents a view of what need assessment is, frequent misunderstanding and criticism of need assessment, and suggested changes for need assessment activities. The purpose of this paper is to address relevant issues and hopefully reduce the likelihood that need assessment will go the way of the "new math," that is, the way of an activity of merit, poorly explained, poorly prepared for, implemented, and then dismissed.