A randomized experiment that measures the impact of a social policy in a sample of the population reveals whether the policy will work on average with universal application. An experiment that includes only the subset of the population that volunteers for the intervention generates narrower "proof-of-concept" evidence of whether the…

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the country's largest food assistance program, providing more than $6.2 billion in supplemental benefits to over 42 million people with low incomes to purchase groceries each month. The SNAP Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Services grant program (SNAP-Ed) equips people eligible for…

The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) Office of Federal Programs conducted a routine monitoring of Upshur County in December of 2022. This resulted in a report of findings which was completed February 10, 2023. Per Federal Program protocols, counties are provided 60 days to respond to findings; establishing Upshur County's deadline for…

Reporting requirements for capturing data on the delivery of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) have evolved. University of Minnesota (U of M) Extension developed the SNAP Education Evaluation and Database System (SEEDS) to capture unduplicated participant information for SNAP-Ed programming conducted by U of M Extension…

Evaluators frequently confront situations in which local programs struggle to meet the expectations and requirements specified by the external program funder. How can evaluators meaningfully evaluate programs (for both the funder and grantee) in situations in which the external program logic clashes with local complexities? This paper discusses…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) administers the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP); land-grant universities conduct the program in all states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia. EFNEP focuses on reaching the poorest of the poor by working through families…

Early care and education (ECE) leaders often consider new content, curricula, and models to include in their quality improvement (QI) toolkit. The Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) centers equity in its approach to engaging staff at all levels in an ECE program. It is a promising approach for center-based ECE programs (with the potential to…

The Agricultural Act of 2014 authorized $200 million for the development, implementation, and evaluation of up to 10 pilot projects to test innovative strategies to increase employment and reduce the need for SNAP among program participants. The 10 States that received grants were California, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois,…

The Agricultural Act of 2014 authorized $200 million for the development, implementation, and evaluation of up to 10 pilot projects to test innovative strategies to reduce dependency on and increase employment among Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants. The 10 States that received grants were California, Delaware, Georgia,…

This technical supplement to the SNAP Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) evaluation interim reports presents details of the authors' technical approach for creating analysis variables and estimating impacts of treatment group services on outcomes, including employment, earnings, and SNAP participation. It also describes the statistical…

This technical supplement to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment and Training (E&T) evaluation final reports presents details of the technical approach used for creating analysis variables and estimating impacts of treatment group services on outcomes, including employment, earnings, and SNAP participation. It also…

In 2012, the United States Department of Education announced the Race to the Top-District grants. One joint award was made to two large educational cooperatives in the same state that together represented 111 mostly rural schools in 22 districts. One of the grant's identified four essential projects was the implementation of personalized learning.…

Every child deserves access to a quality education, and teaching is a core determinant of students' educational experience. Quality teaching is correlated with better learning outcomes, increased student achievement, and higher salaries and other benefits in adulthood. In this report, the Center for American Progress proposes a new federal…

Funded grant projects all involve some form of evaluation, and Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grants are no exception. Program evaluation serves as a critical component not only for evaluating if a project has met its intended and desired outcomes, but the evaluation process is also a central feature of the grant application itself.…

An integrated data system (IDS) that links information from separate administrative data systems offers policymakers, program administrators and researchers a powerful tool to analyze interactive effects across systems and make more informed decisions to improve outcomes for vulnerable families. This case study discusses how two states (Washington…