Determining "What Works" in Social Programs and Social Policies: Toward a More Inclusive Knowledge Base.

Autor/in	Schorr, Lisbeth B.
Institution	Brookings Institution, Washington, DC.
Titel	Determining "What Works" in Social Programs and Social Policies: Toward a More Inclusive Knowledge Base.
Quelle	(2003), (40 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Child Health; Child Welfare; Context Effect; Educational Research; Elementary Secondary Education; Evaluation Methods; Program Evaluation; School Community Relationship; School Readiness; Social Influences + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Kindeswohl; Bildungsforschung; Pädagogische Forschung; Programme evaluation; Programmevaluation; Readiness for school; School ability; Schulreife; Sozialer Einfluss
Abstract	This paper asserts that rigorous research on the impacts of social programs to improve children's prospects are necessary but not sufficient, because too many programs are multidimensional, cannot or should not be standardized, evolve or adapt through time, require participants' active involvement, or are heavily dependent for success on good implementation, not just good design. It recommends more flexible forms of evaluation or assessment that require experts and practitioners to hypothesize linkages between actions and outcomes, prioritize actions, identify interim indicators of success, and pay more attention to program attributes and institutional contexts that are essential to success. While recognizing the trade-off between knowing a few things very well and more things with less certainty, the paper argues for greater efforts to understand broad patterns that connect activities to results, even if this means compromising the search for absolute truths. Five appendices present: characteristics of effective interventions that make them difficult to evaluate with prevailing methods; examples of actions that contribute to school readiness; examples of indicators that measure progress toward sub-goals and toward outcome of school readiness; examples of attributes of effective services and supports; and examples of community and systems contexts that contribute to effectiveness. (Contains 25 references.) (SM)
Anmerkungen	Brookings Institution, 1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20036-2188. Tel: 202-797-6258; Fax: 202-797-6181; Web site: http://www.brook.edu.
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC