About Us

Company Overview

Kirkpatrick Partners is proud to be the One and Only Kirkpatrick^® company, and the only provider of authentic Kirkpatrick products and programs. The company carries on the work of Don Kirkpatrick, PhD, and the Kirkpatrick Model of training evaluation, also referred to as the four levels of evaluation. Kirkpatrick Partners offers training, consulting, impact studies, books and other written resources on the Kirkpatrick Model and related concepts.

Kirkpatrick Partners is a family-owned small business established in 2008 to respond to a growing need for companies to rationalize the resources dedicated to training. Originally called Kirkpatrick Consulting, the company was renamed to better represent the full line of products and services it provides to the training and business community.

Kirkpatrick Partners is firmly grounded in the principles that Don Kirkpatrick created over 50 years ago. Don served as the company's Honorary Chairman until his passing in May of 2014. Jim Kirkpatrick, Don's son, is a Senior Consultant with the company. Wendy Kirkpatrick, is the Founder and President of Kirkpatrick Partners.

Kirkpatrick Partners proudly continues to reinforce the importance of the Kirkpatrick levels of training evaluation around the world. In addition, the newer Kirkpatrick Business Partnership Model and Kirkpatrick Foundational Principles underpin all products and programs the company provides.

Kirkpatrick Partners is based in the Atlanta, GA area.

Click here to learn more about what we do and the services we offer at Kirkpatrick Partners.

Click here to learn about the credentials you can earn by participating in Kirkpatrick programs, and what they mean.

Click here to meet the company leaders.

Click here to learn about our Kirkpatrick Affiliates located around the world that help to share the Kirkpatrick methodology globally.

Click here to meet our Kirkpatrick Certified Facilitators, the only people worldwide authorized to deliver authentic Kirkpatrick programs and services.

Click here to see a timeline of the late Dr. Donald Kirkpatrick's accomplishments and honors.

The Kirkpatrick Methodology - A Brief History

The Kirkpatrick Model has evolved over multiple decades through application by learning and development professionals around the world.

In 1954, Dr. Donald Kirkpatrick wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on evaluation of training for industrial supervisors. Like most training and development professionals, he had a genuine desire to know if his training was making a difference for the supervisors he trained, their direct reports, and the organizations in which they worked. He applied four steps he learned from Dr. Raymond Katzell, a prominent psychology researcher at the time. He refers to Katzell’s four steps in a 1956 article on training evaluation.

In 1959, Don was contacted by the organization now known as the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and asked to write an article about the training evaluation work he did for his dissertation. He wrote four articles, entitled Reaction, Learning, Behavior and Results.

Over the next decade unbeknownst to Don, the articles circulated, and training professionals around the world used and adapted his ideas. Someone whose identity is unknown called the words levels, and someone dubbed it The Kirkpatrick Model. Don became aware of these things sometime in the 1970s. Since then, the Kirkpatrick Model has become the industry standard for training evaluation.

In the 1990s, Don was asked to write a book to expand on the original four articles. He went on to write two additional books on the topic.

In 2008, Dr. Jim Kirkpatrick and Wendy Kirkpatrick created the Kirkpatrick Business Partnership Model, an expansion of the original four levels, as discussed in their book Training on Trial. They created the Kirkpatrick Foundational Principles to explain the key beliefs underpinning Kirkpatrick evaluation.

In 2010, Jim and Wendy Kirkpatrick clarified the original intent of the Kirkpatrick four levels with the New World Kirkpatrick Model.

                    See the Kirkpatrick Model

                    See the New World Kirkpatrick Model

                    Read the Kirkpatrick Foundational Principles

Learn about Return on Expectations

                    Review the Glossary of Kirkpatrick Terms