Goal-free evaluation (Often shortened to GFE) is any evaluation in which the evaluator conducts the evaluation without particular knowledge of or reference to stated or predetermined goals and objectives. This external evaluation model typically consists of an independent evaluator who is intentionally screened from the program's stated goals and objectives in hopes of reducing potential goal-related tunnel vision. According to Scriven, the logic behind avoiding stated goals and objectives has to do with "finding out what the program is actually doing without being cued as to what it is trying to do. If the program is achieving its stated goals and objectives, then these achievements should show up; if not, it is argued, they are irrelevant" . The goal-free evaluator attempts to observe and measure all actual outcomes, effects, or impacts, intended or unintended, all without being cued to the program's intentions. As Popham analogizes, “As you can learn from any baseball pitcher who has set out in the first inning to pitch a shutout, the game’s final score is the thing that counts, not good intentions.” Youker and Ingraham summarize GFE's benefits which are based on: Controlling goal Uncovering side effects Avoiding the rhetoric of “true” goals Adapting to contextual/environmental changes Aligning goals with actual program activities and outcomes Supplementing goal-based evaluation (also known as objectives-based evaluation) Development Michael Scriven first introduced the concept of GFE in the 1970s. According to Youker, Ford, and Bayer, following GFE's introduction, there was moderate interest use . However, enthusiasm and interest waned, leaving few practitioners. Then in the 2000s, there was a small resurgence of interest in GFE. In a literature search of GFE from 1972 to 2012, Youker and Ingraham (2013) uncovered roughly a score of evaluators who purport to have conducted a GFE or others identified them as having conducted a GFE. Description Goal-free evaluation is not a comprehensive stand-alone evaluation model; rather it is considered either a perspective or position concerning an evaluator's goal orientation throughout an evaluation, or a technique or tool for evaluating without referencing goals. Scriven claims GFE is methodologically neutral, which means that it can be used or adapted for use with several other evaluation approaches, models, and methods as long as the other approaches do not mandate goal orientation. There are really only two methodological requirements of GFE. The first is that the goal-free evaluator be external from and independent of the program and