When a Healthy Relationship Becomes the #Relationshipgoals for Teens
February 12, 2016
Naomi GoldsteinBy Naomi Goldstein, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning, Research and Evaluation
The Administration’s fiscal year 2017 budget request continues to propose strong investments in learning for ACF programs. These proposals reflect an emphasis on the use of evidence in policymaking across the Administration’s budget request.
An OMB fact sheet on the budget describes efforts at sixteen agencies to build and use evidence to improve results. The fact sheet also describes cross-cutting proposals such as making better use of administrative data. An entire chapter in the Analytical Perspectives volume discusses how to build capacity to produce and use evidence. This chapter cites our evaluation policy and discusses its principles: rigor, relevance, independence, transparency, and ethics.
We have a strong record of conducting rigorous evaluations to learn systematically so that we can make our services as effective as possible. However, many of our programs have little or no evaluation or research resources. Because of this, they have only limited evidence about effective approaches for the services they fund. In addition, few resources are available for research on topics that cut across the complex needs of the individuals and families we serve. In recent years, ACF’s investment in research and evaluation has been less than one fifth of one percent of our overall budget.
Our fiscal year 2017 request therefore reflects a targeted approach to strengthening our capacity to build and use evidence to improve programs. The fiscal year 2017 budget request, taken together with existing authorities and funding supporting ongoing research and evaluation activities, aims to advance toward a vision in which all our programs will continually create and use evidence to innovate, learn, and improve. The request continues investments in learning related to early childhood, child welfare, youth, self-sufficiency, welfare, employment, child support, and more. The request also proposes an independent evaluation of the proposed initiative to support states in developing statewide-integrated data systems and related analytic tools.
