The "Standards for Evaluations of Educational Programs Projects Materials," formulated by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation raise certain questions which should be regarded as indicating a further complementary perspective rather than as a criticism of their formulation. The possibility of conflict between the various standards, their scope, and the existence of political and organizational context factors in evaluation research suggests that the whole evaluation problem should be considered at a higher level of aggregation; the level of national research policy and in the institutional and organizational structures at that level. In the conceptualization of policy and evaluation research and their relationship, three propositions in the policy-making and organizational context of evaluation research lead to a whole set of problems raised by certain standards. These are "conflicting interests,""political viability," and various standards to do with the evaluation object, groups and persons involved: object identification, public identification, and information scope and identification. A brief account of a study of the functioning of policy-oriented research in some innovative programs in Dutch education elucidates why the problems should be looked at primarily in connection with management-organizational conditions at a macro-level. (Author/CM)