Assessing Program Performance

Establishing the "Activities-Outcomes" Connection: Evaluation Experiments

Performance measurement can and should assess program outcomes. However, in order to establish the connection between a program's activities and observed outcomes, an impact evaluation, in the form of an experiment or randomized controlled trial (RCT), is necessary. The RCT involves assigning individuals randomly to participate in the program, then comparing outcomes for program participants and non-participants. While in theory all programs should be evaluated using RCTs, practical considerations limit their use in many situations. In order to illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of evaluation experiments, three common evaluation designs are reviewed:

Pre-experimental (pre-post) design
Quasi-experimental (comparison group) design
Experimental (control group) design (randomized controlled trial)

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Allocate Sufficient Funds for an Impact Evaluation: If Controlled Experimentation is Infeasible, Approach Less Rigorous Designs with Caution and Imagination (National Institute of Justice)

Impact Evaluation Designs and The Impact Evaluation Design 'Decision Tree' (The Urban Institute)

Methods of Analyzing Data (National Institute of Justice)

Observing Behavioral Outcomes and Attributing Changes to the Program (U.S. Department of Education)

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