Evaluation policy has been identified as an important means of shaping and influencing organizational evaluation practice, yet, to date, little empirical research has been conducted to deepen our understanding of this relationship. The purpose of this study was to illuminate evaluation policy's role in leveraging organizational capacity to do and…

This paper develops a novel approach called Outcome Trajectory Evaluation (OTE) in response to the long-causal-chain problem confronting the evaluation of research for development (R4D) projects. OTE strives to tackle four issues resulting from the common practice of evaluating R4D projects based on theory of change developed at the start. The…

This report summarises the outcomes of the first (micro) phase of the thematic country reviews (TCRs) on upskilling pathways in France, which reflect the points of view of both the beneficiaries of the outreach and guidance schemes and services under investigation, and the professionals involved in their implementation. The TCR on upskilling…

Objective: The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is part of the cultural fabric of Irish society with a club in almost every community nationwide. The aim of this project was to carry out a pilot evaluation of the GAA Healthy Club Project (HCP), which is a unique effort by a national governing body to include health as part of the core business of…

In this paper we investigate the effect of difference in outcome definitions on the result of impact evaluations. The Swedish workplace practice programme is evaluated, using matching methods. The key findings are that changing how the outcome is defined has a considerable influence on the results of the impact assessment. From the results of this…

Through discussion with the membership, Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association identified an issue at gameday environments. The fans, especially parents, were causing fan issues at athletic events. This program evaluation focuses on "Gameday the DIII Way" training program. "Gameday the DIII Way" is a…

In 2011, the Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research launched a set of educational opportunities to facilitate and enhance the dissemination of TCPS 2, the 2nd edition of the "Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans" (2010), which guides Canadian research ethics. Three educational modalities…

Researchers and policy makers are increasingly dissatisfied with the "average treatment effect." Not only are they interested in learning about the overall causal effects of policy interventions, but they want to know what specifically it is about the intervention that is responsible for any observed effects. In the U.S., using…

Since the early 2000s, a significant number of programs and policies have been developed and implemented to prevent and combat human trafficking. At the international, regional and national levels, government, and international, and nongovernment organizations have established plans of action, conducted training, developed policy tools, and…

The objective of the audit presented in this report was to evaluate the Office of Special Education Programs' (OSEP) implementation of its differentiated monitoring and support component under the results driven accountability initiative. The audit covered differentiated monitoring and support (DMS) that OSEP conducted under Part B of the…

Despite bipartisan support in Washington, DC, which dates back to the mid-1990s, the "what works" approach has yet to gain broad support among policymakers and practitioners. One way to build such support is to increase the usefulness of program impact evaluations for these groups. We describe three ways to make impact evaluations more…

This article presents a discourse analytic study of how the concept of impartiality is socially constructed by members of the development aid community through an examination of linguistic traits and patterns within (a) inter- and intraorganizational interactions and (b) relevant aid evaluation policy documents. A qualitative analysis of…

Objective: The purpose of this study was to document the development and testing costs of the Enhanced Alcohol Risk Management (eARM) intervention, a web enhanced training program to prevent alcohol sales to intoxicated bar patrons and to estimate its implementation costs in a "real world", non-research setting. Methods: Data for this…

This document is part of a Bridgespan Group research project that focused on the question: "How could a philanthropist make the biggest improvement on social mobility with an investment of $1 billion?" In answering this question, the authors have sought to understand "what matters most" for improving social mobility outcomes.…

Evaluation policies set an important frame of reference for how evaluations are implemented. Despite the central influence that policies play in how evaluations are conducted, little empirical work has been conducted to better understand how these policies are interpreted and implemented. This paper describes the findings of case study evaluation…