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Session Title: Accountability, Context, Transparency, and President Obama: Evaluation in the New Administration
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Panel Session 712 to be held in Sebastian Section I1 on Saturday, Nov 14, 9:15 AM to 10:45 AM
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Sponsored by the Government Evaluation TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| David J Bernstein, Westat, davidbernstein@westat.com
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| Discussant(s):
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| David J Bernstein, Westat, davidbernstein@westat.com
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| Abstract:
This panel will explore the impact of U.S. President Barack Obama and his Administration on accountability, transparency, evaluation, and the context of U.S. federal evaluation. A distinguished panel of experts will provide their well-informed options to address these and other questions:
* Was then Senator Barack Obama’s campaign focus on increased accountability and transparency campaign rhetoric or part of a larger plan to increase government efforts to capture information about government programs through evaluation and performance measurement and make that information accessible to the public?
* What impact is the economic stimulus package having on federal accountability and evaluation-related efforts?
* What is the status of the Program Assessment Rating Tool, and what changes have occurred or are envisioned?
* What have we learned about the new Administration’s approach to evaluation policy?
* What has been the impact on evaluation practice within federal agencies?
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What's Up Now in the Federal Government?
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| George F Grob, Center for Public Program Evaluation, georgefgrob@cs.com
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U.S. President Barack Obama has announced his principles of accountability, performance, and transparency. He wants to change the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) to put results in context, avoid ideological bases for performance measures, and involve the Congress and the public in setting program goals. We have seen aspects of these concepts in the economic stimulus legislation, and in health and education proposals. AEA has presented its "Evaluation Roadmap for a More Effective Government" to the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This presentation will report where Federal evaluation policy stands. Potential topics include the role of Inspectors General (IGs) in the stimulus package, evaluation policies in the budget, the role of the Chief Performance Officer and Performance Council, the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), PART, OMB evaluation initiatives, and how the evaluation function is playing out in education, and health reform, and international development.
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Will the New Calls for Accountability in Federal Spending Lead to More and More Useful: Program Evaluation?
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| Stephanie L Shipman, United States Government Accountability Office, shipmans@gao.gov
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The past year's political transition in the federal government has strengthened interest in ensuring government transparency, accountability, and results for the American people. Large public investments of the economic stimulus package are accompanied by a blizzard of reporting requirements to show the public how their money is spent. The President demonstrated his commitment to improving results through announcing a budget scrub for wasteful and redundant spending, and promising improvements in evaluation initiatives begun under the last Administration (such as PART). Congress proposes to increase program oversight and more frequently demands "rigorous" evaluation evidence to reduce wasteful and ineffective spending. From the perspective of Congress' primary oversight agency and AEA's Evaluation Policy Task Force, Ms. Shipman will discuss some opportunities and challenges identified in GAO's work with Congress to help ensure that a diverse array of program evaluation activities will provide credible results that can best inform efforts to improve government.
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Evaluation and Measurement in the New Administration: View From the Trenches
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| Kathryn E Newcomer, George Washington University, newcomer@gwu.edu
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With each election that results in a change in administration, it is reasonable to expect that there will be changes not only resulting from the appointment of high-level government officials, but also dramatic changes in policy, perspectives, programmatic focus, and government operations. The Administration of President Obama is no exception. The President's campaign emphasis on accountability and transparency, combined with concerns about the earlier economic stimulus efforts involving the banking and finance industry, has heightened the expectations for the new Administration. This presentation will include a discussion of the challenges and opportunities for federal agencies and federal evaluators that result from these heightened expectations. Specific agency reactions and responses will be discussed. Finally, the presentation will address whether the increased demands for evaluation and performance information are being met with resources to carry out such activities.
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Accountability, Transparency, and Effectiveness Under President Obama: The United States Department of Education's (ED)'s Evaluation Response
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| Alan L Ginsburg, United States Department of Education, alan.ginsburg@ed.gov
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The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is receiving about $50 billion fiscal stimulus fund in 2009-2010, nearly double its annual budget. ED is committed to being accountable for effective spending of the new funds. ED is committed to using the opportunity created by the expanded funding to weed out ineffective programs and make existing programs work better. This presentation will describe how ED's evaluation strategies are responding to the need for improved accountability, transparency and effectiveness in the use of ED funds within a complex federal-state-local system through a multi-method evaluation approach that includes:
- Strengthening the relevance and data quality of ED's performance indicators.
- Assessing the effectiveness of the many smaller ED programs that lack evaluation evidence.
- Using research and evaluation evidence to provide formative guidance for stimulus and program spending.
- Presenting evaluation information to the Congress and the public in a timely and clear way.
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