Doing Evidence Right

The dominant view in the evidence-based government community is that we use evidence to figure out “what works,” and then direct resources toward what works and away from what does not. The view also holds that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the best method to produce evidence and that we should give pride of place to RCTs for the evidence in evidence-based government. Neither idea is completely mistaken. However, both have real limits we need to consider if we want to do evidence right.

We should not use program evaluations primarily to define programs as “effective” or “ineffective,” but to help find ways to improve.

Read the full article originally published in the Winter 2017 edition of PATimes here.