In March 2009, the RAND Frederick S. Pardee Center for Longer Range Global Policy and the Future Human Condition hosted a workshop called "Shaping Tomorrow Today: Near-Term Steps Towards Long-Term Goals." The workshop gave policymakers and analysts an opportunity to explore new methods and tools that can help improve long-term decisionmaking. The…

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has endorsed a "Closing the Gap" agenda designed to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. The agenda is distilled in a series of targets, one of which is the goal of halving the gap for Indigenous students in Year 12 attainment or equivalent (Certificate II or above) attainment rates by…

Policy analysis consists of evaluating policy options in terms of their effects. The analysis is not complete, however, until the reasoning has been reversed, starting at the outcome end and reasoning back to the first choice (backward mapping). Reversing the logic has two effects on analysis; it provides insurance against unanticipated effects,…

The relation of the concept of metapolicy to the evaluation agenda is discussed. Metapolicy is a general rule or policy about how public policies should be made or implemented. Broad shifts in metapolicy create new agenda items for evaluation. If the shift is toward reduced federal involvement in social programs, new evaluation questions are not…

Reflections on the politics of program evaluation are presented. Topics discussed include policy question development and translation into evaluation questions, translation of evaluation questions into the evaluation proper, translation of evaluation findings into policy, and generation of new policy questions. (TJH)

The extent to which evaluation and auditing have converged on procedures in recent years and the extent to which they remain different are examined in the five chapters of this special issue. Different emphases, the question of collaboration with the subjects of inquiry, and issues of routinized performance are explored. (SLD)

Current policy analysis has proved less useful in improving public policy formation than policy scientists once argued it would. At least part of the reason for this lies in the fact that policy analysis has concentrated too narrowly on economic paradigms in teaching and practice, minimizing the evaluation of consequences outside that field. To be…

Policy analysis, or policy study, is defined as the study of the nature, causes, and effects of alternative public policies; sometimes policy analysis refers to specific methods used. Two new developments associated with policy analysis are discussed. One is the concern for deducing the effects of alternative policies before they are adopted, as…

The history of evaluation utilization in policy making and political features of program evaluation are discussed. A five-part continuum describes the evaluation process. Evaluation practice modifications contribute to real growth in evaluation use in congressional policy making as evaluation research improves the quality of information available…

This issue and its introductions, postscript, and 11 chapters deal with the special evaluation problems of programs in the developing world. Views of policymakers, practitioners, and evaluators on ways to evaluate development are presented. The collection offers a framework for debate and proposes new emphases for development evaluation. (SLD)

An overview is given of four evaluation studies conducted to determine the need for and possible parameters of a "postinterstate" highway policy. How these studies sought to provide cumulative information for policy makers is discussed. They investigated the scope of problems, the federal role, cost issues, and technology. (SLD)

This study examined the allocation of government research grants to universities in the United Kingdom in the context of the current funding system which distributes such grants based on universities' performance in the marketplace. Marketplace performance indicators include academic staff and postgraduate student counts, grants from Research…

It is time for the field of evaluation to recognize that the ability to serve policy depends as much on what is understood about how politics works as it does on the quality and appropriateness of evaluation methods. Evaluations must be defensible as the political mix changes. (SLD)

How state agencies have addressed privatization in a service setting (municipal wastewater treatment) is discussed. The implications for evaluations of many types of programs, particularly those of local service programs regulated by the states, are explored. Data from a national survey of state environmental regulatory agencies are highlighted.…

This volume contains an edited transcript of the Rockefeller Institute's October 29, 2007 symposium (Chicago, IL) entitled "Intergovernmental Approaches to Strengthen K-12 Accountability Systems" as well as a framework paper circulated in preparation for the symposium. The transcript begins with a list of the forty state and federal education…