The previous history of unsystematic practice of educational evaluation has created for the present evaluator a set of problems resulting from a tradition of fear, mistrust, suspicion and disbelief among the educational community. Absences of evidence of critical influence have resulted in the underfunding of evaluation. Common problems faced by evaluators can be attributed to the current state of the art and to the present status of education. Social action programs have three major characteristics: (1) The goals or intentions of the programs seek to effect changes in society as a whole; (2) The programs are outgrowths of social theory and due to the changing nature of social theory often fail to be accompanied by operational prototypes; and (3) The programs are action-oriented and fail to provide time for indecision. Problems to be dealt with by evaluators of social action programs arise from the uniqueness of the program goals or from the developmental nature of the programs. Problems faced include: (1) the presence of value conflicts and the absence of procedures for negotiation, (2) inability of decision maker to identify total information needs, (3) unrealistic schedules or goals, (4) length of time required for completion of programs, (5) measurement of uncharted relationships, and (6) inability to analyze complex interactions. (CK)