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Session Title: Strategies for Evaluation Quality in Government
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Multipaper Session 348 to be held in Texas A on Thursday, Nov 11, 3:35 PM to 4:20 PM
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Sponsored by the Government Evaluation TIG
and the Crime and Justice TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Margaret Braun,
Oregon Department of Corrections, margaret.j.braun@doc.state.or.us
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Approaching Multi-site Evaluations in Government: A Process Evaluation of Drug Court and Treatment as Usual
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| Presenter(s):
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| Shannon Myrick, Oregon Youth Authority, shannon.myrick@oya.state.or.us
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| Margaret Braun, Oregon Department of Corrections, margaret.j.braun@doc.state.or.us
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| Abstract:
Over the last three decades, drug courts have emerged as an alternative method to reduce substance abuse among drug-addicted offenders through a combination of intensive supervision and treatment. Preliminary findings regarding the impact of drug courts are positive; however the NIJ (2006) recently called upon evaluators to address what specific processes of the drug court model are explicably related to offender outcomes. In this presentation we describe our efforts to answer this call in an evaluation of the comparative processes of drug courts and treatment as usual for offenders in four Oregon counties. We illustrate our evaluation approach and the strategies used to establish consistency and measure program theory across evaluation sites. We also describe challenges we encountered designing, implementing, and managing a multi-site, multi-condition evaluation within the local criminal justice system. Preliminary findings and the importance of conducting process evaluations to improve government evaluation quality will be discussed.
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