NCJ Number
232967
Date Published
2010
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This guide provides directions for local drug-court practitioners in using data productively to monitor their daily operations, report essential performance information, identify successes, and identify problem areas and ways to improve operations.
Abstract
The featured activity described in the guide is "action research," which is "designed to provide immediate and useful feedback about everyday program operations and performance." Action research not only evaluates whether a drug court is operating as planned, but also how, why, and for whom it is having intended effects, as well as how it can improve outcomes. The most common goals of action research are to determine whether the drug court is meeting its volume projections, the profile of drug-court participants, the course of treatment and recovery, the core outcomes, which participants succeed, and the ultimate policy implications. After defining the nature and goals of action research, the guide outlines steps in action research. These steps consist of identifying program goals and objectives, developing plans to measure the objectives, identifying and developing plans to answer other questions of interest, reviewing the findings, taking action, and testing the implementation of new policies. The guide then turns to data collection, as it identifies key categories of data that must be tracked. A section on drug court performance indicators notes that although drug courts will vary in their specific objectives and action research plans, the following five types of performance indicators are almost always important: volume of participants, case processing time, retention and graduates, time to graduate, and the participant profile. Another section of the guide addresses the use of drug-court participant surveys as a relatively easy method to generate additional feedback. The guide concludes with an explanation of why action research must be an essential component of a drug court's operation. 10 notes and appended Action Research Worksheet