| Session Title: What Have We Learned About Randomized Control Trials (RCTs), Gold Standards, and Credible Evidence: Moving Beyond the Debates to Improve Policy and Practice |
| Expert Lecture Session 897 to be held in Centennial Section D on Saturday, Nov 8, 3:05 PM to 3:50 PM |
| Sponsored by the Research on Evaluation TIG |
| Chair(s): |
| Melvin Mark, Pennsylvania State University, m5m@psu.edu |
| Presenter(s): |
| Stewart I Donaldson, Claremont Graduate University, stewart.donaldson@cgu.edu |
| Discussant(s): |
| Christina Christie, Claremont Graduate University, tina.christie@cgu.edu |
| Abstract: This expert lecture will summarized the key findings from a new book on 'What Counts as Credible Evidence in Applied Research and Evaluation Practice' (Donaldson, Mark, & Christie, 2008). Many thorny debates about what counts as evidence have occurred in recent years, but few have sorted out the issues in a way that directly informs evaluation practice. In this volume, internationally renowned evaluators explore the challenges of designing and executing high quality evaluations in contemporary evaluation practice. This lecture will summarize what can be learned from the chapter authors about the strengths and weaknesses of both experimental and non-experimental approaches for gathering credible and actionable evidence. A proposal to revise the notion of an 'Experimenting Society' to an 'Evidence-based Global Society', which includes replacing the 'RCT Gold Standard' with the gold standard of 'Methodological Appropriateness' will be offered as a avenue toward improving evaluation policy and practice. |