NCJ Number
74044
Date Published
1980
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This paper proposes that to be useful, evaluations of public programs have to begin before the programs are implemented, and be conceptualized as a part of a fully integrated experimental system.
Abstract
At present, most evaluations of public programs are not relevant to policymaking because they are conducted after the programs have been implemented. These evaluations cannot consider effects of program types or methods that have not been implemented, they cannot accurately capture the state of program recipients or the host environment prior to the onset of the program, and they have difficulty capturing posttreatment effects in view of administrative limitations on the quality and nature of the data collected during the program. On the other hand, incorporating an a priori recognition of the value of evaluation into the design and implementation of a program makes it not only a mechanism for providing a public good, but also an instrument for experimenting with theories regarding effects of various program types on specified social problems. To serve that function, the design, implementation, and evaluation of a social program has to be conceptualized as a fully integrated set of activities that point toward the rationalization of the overall policy development process. The major phases of such a system are: (1) experimental opportunity identification, which addresses questions of the feasibility and appropriate organizational location of expriments; (2) experiment design, which involves designing both experimental treatments and their evaluation; and (3) implementation, which produces the evaluative information on the effects of the program types. Future research should be more nearly definitive in explicating the application of the principles of exprimentation that will eventually support the social experimentation approach. One figure and six notes are included. For other papers in this series, see NCJ 74043.