This chapter presents the view that educational evaluation is an inherently political process and that educational practitioners and scholars will profit from attending more directly to questions about the political aspects of evaluation. The author argues that evaluation is a political resource that can be used to influence the distribution of stakes in education, and he presents a number of vignettes and citations from the literature on the evaluation of various social action and educational programs that illustrate the relationship between education and politics. He then discusses the implications of this relationship and concludes by identifying three possible lines for future inquiry into the politics of evaluation in education. (Author/JG)