Program Evaluation: Strategies for Assessing How Information Dissemination Contributes to Agency Goals

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.

This readable and comprehensive text is designed to equip students and practitioners with the statistical skills needed to meet government standards regarding public program evaluation. Even those with little statistical training will find the explanations clear, with many illustrative examples, case studies, and applications. Far more than a cookbook of statistical techniques, the book begins with chapters on the overall context for successful program evaluations, and carefully explains statistical methods--and threats to internal and statistical validity--that correspond to each evaluation design. Laura Langbein then presents a variety of methods for program analysis, and advise readers on how to select the mix of methods most appropriate for the issues they deal with-- always balancing methodology with the need for generality, the size of the evaluator's budget, the availability of data, and the need for quick results.

This report examines: (1) the Office of Management & Budget's (OMB) & agency perspectives on the effects that the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) recommendations are having on agency operations & program results; (2) OMB's leadership in ensuring a complementary relationships between the PART & the Government Performance & Results Act of 1993 (GPRA); & (3) steps OMB has taken to involve Congress in the PART process. This report also followed up on issues raised in a Jan. 2004 report on the PART. Includes recommendations. Charts & tables.