The study dealt with a research environment in which the treatment effect is heterogeneous, and in which individuals use their assessments of the treatment effect to decide whether or not to enroll in an intervention program. In this article, a new methodology is proposed for examining the validity of the specified research environment in a given…

Opposes the practice of aggregating impacts on outcome dimensions to arrive at one summary assessment of program merit. Suggests that impacts should be kept separate and unweighted, expressed in their own measurement scales. Illustrates this method through an evaluation of the effects of research grants on a university. (SLD)

The chronic and relapsing nature of substance abuse points to the need for continuing care after a primary phase of treatment. This article reviews the economic studies of continuing care, discusses research gaps, highlights some of the challenges of conducting rigorous economic evaluations of continuing care, and offers research guidelines and…

Presents a case study of the development and implementation of the "results framework," an innovative planning and evaluation tool that is becoming a standard for U.S. Agency for International Development projects. Explains the advantages of this evaluation and monitoring approach. (SLD)

The methodology and design of the process evaluation system of the Pawtucket Heart Health Program (an 11-year project for changing/documenting change in cardiovascular disease risk status of a northeastern city's residents) are described. Examples of the system's use are provided. The maintenance of such a system without substantial evaluation…

Presents conversion factors to be used to translate the quality of the respective contraception methods distributed to a single measure of protection for calculating couple-years of protection in family planning studies. Discusses the implications for the evaluation of family planning programs. (SLD)

This article discusses the use of propensity scoring in experimental program evaluations to estimate impacts for subgroups defined by program features and participants' program experiences. The authors discuss estimation issues and provide specification tests. They also discuss the use of an overlooked data collection design--obtaining predictions…

This article outlines an approach for developing and applying computerized decision support systems to the formulation and evaluation of public policy. To meet the challenge of financial resource limitations, new management systems must be developed to improve both governmental efficiency and decision-making effectiveness. (Author/BS)

Describes the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and reviews and assesses research on its impact. Recommends policy reforms and randomized experiments to evaluate the program and any changes made to it. Weaknesses in research to date make the real impacts of WIC unclear. (Contains 79 references.) (SLD)

Explores sequential assignment (SA) and treatment-as-usual (TAU) as two approaches to overcome many of the obstacles of random assignment in field studies of treatment efficacy. Substituting SA and TAU for the standard random assignment may introduce methodological impurities including certain limited biases. (SLD)

An evaluation system was designed which directly addresses federal legislation for accountability in vocational education programs. Six criteria were included; three focus on interim evidence of project success, and three address final evidence of project effectiveness. (Author/GK)

The collaborative effort between university researchers and a CETA sponsor aimed at "knowledge development" in employment and training services for disadvantaged out-of-school youth is described. Discussion is included concerning the feasibility of experimental evaluation for youth employment programs in a local setting. (Author/GK)

The 11 programs and sites participating in the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Intensive Supervision Demonstration Project are described. The demonstration was designed to assess the effects and costs of sentencing convicted felons to community-based programs. The evaluation by the Rand Corporation and data collection methods and random…

Describes a method that uses program participants' compliance with program instructions as a means of classifying participants and in that way obtains a randomized control group for a subset of participants. Illustrates two variations of the method through a large smoking-intervention project. (SLD)

In this article, the authors discuss program evaluation of intervention studies when the outcome of interest is collected routinely at equally spaced intervals of time. They illustrate concepts using data from the American Stop Smoking Intervention Study, where the outcome is state per capita tobacco consumption. States differ widely in mean…