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Session Title: Strengthening Federal Program Evaluation Policies and Practice
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Panel Session 120 to be held in Huntington B on Wednesday, Nov 2, 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM
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Sponsored by the Government Evaluation TIG
and the Evaluation Policy TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Stephanie Shipman, United States Government Accountability Office, shipmans@gao.gov
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| Abstract:
After two decades of increasing pressures on federal agencies to provide credible information on the efficiency and effectiveness of their programs and policies, we are recently seeing increased interest and investment in strengthening agency evaluation. This panel provides concrete suggestions for strategies that federal (and other public) agencies could adopt or adapt to increase the usefulness of their evaluations for policy and program management and oversight. GAO staff will report their findings on the policies and criteria that four agencies with mature evaluation capacity use to develop effective evaluation agendas. A CDC official will describe CDC's recent efforts to instill a culture of continuous quality improvement, better integrate planning, performance measurement, and evaluation, and build evaluation capacity across the Centers. A State Department official will discuss the development and initial implementation of their new department-wide evaluation policy, one of the few such examples in the federal government.
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Federal Agencies Balance Multiple Criteria to Develop Effective Evaluation Agendas
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| Stephanie Shipman, United States Government Accountability Office, shipmans@gao.gov
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| Valerie J Caracelli, United States Government Accountability Office, caracelliv@gao.gov
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| Jeff Tessin, United States Government Accountability Office, tessinj@gao.gov
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Recent congressional and executive initiatives seek to improve federal government performance and accountability through expanding the availability and use of program evaluation. GAO was asked to study the evaluation planning policies of federal agencies that have mature evaluation capacity in order to help other agencies focus their evaluation resources on supporting effective management and legislative oversight. The project team will discuss the remarkably similar planning processes and selection criteria used by four agencies in the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development to develop effective evaluation agendas-a portfolio of studies that strive to provide timely, credible answers to important policy and program management questions. The presentation will also discuss some of the conditions that influenced variation in processes across the agencies and could influence others' adoption of the shared model. The report, GAO-11-176, was issued in January 2011.
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A Rising Tide Raises All Boats: Supporting Program Evaluation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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| Thomas Chapel, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tchapel@cdc.gov
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CDC's many Centers and large grant programs have a long history of program evaluation. But approaches, resources, and uses of data for program improvement vary widely. Furthermore, program evaluation has tended to exist apart from strategic planning and performance measurement efforts in many programs. In 2010, CDC created the Office of the Associate Director for Program to instill a culture of continuous quality improvement, better integrate planning, performance measurement, and evaluation, and to help support and improve program evaluation and evaluation capacity. This presentation will discuss key efforts of the Office, focusing in particular on the creation and implementation of standards and recommendations for program evaluation, the role of a new agency-wide advisory group, a "meaningful measures" project to better link program evaluation and mandated performance measurement, and several key efforts to build evaluation capacity through training, resources, and technical assistance.
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Department of State Evaluation Policy: From Evolution to Implementation
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| Stephanie Cabell, United States Department of State, cabellsd@state.gov
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The U.S. Department of State introduced a new evaluation policy in late 2010 and is rolling out implementing procedures and guidance to support successful implementation of the policy. State's evaluation policy provides a framework for the implementation of evaluations for programs, projects, and activities carried out by the Department. The policy supports the Department's goal of connecting evaluation, an essential function of effective performance management, to investments in diplomacy and development to ensure they align with the agency's overarching strategic goals and objectives. The presentation will also touch upon how State and USAID are working together to build evaluation capacity within the two agencies and to bring about more effective collaboration and coordination of evaluations.
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