Complete List

Coalition Evidence Reviews

• Social Programs that Work – What works in social policy? This website summarizes the results of well-conducted randomized controlled trials that have identified effective social interventions.

 

Published Papers/Op-Eds

• A Brief History of Evidence-Based Policy, by Jon Baron, The ANNALS of  the American Academy of Political and Social Science, June 2018

• Applying Evidence to Social Programs, by Jon Baron, New York Times – November 2012

• What Constitutes Strong Evidence of Program Effectiveness?, by Jon Baron, Education Week – October 2012 (.pdf, 3 pages)

• Congress Should Use Cost-Effectiveness to Guide Social Spending, by Jon Baron and Ron Haskins, Brookings Institution – November 2011 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• Reduce the Budget Deficit Through Innovation, by Jon Baron and Ron Haskins, The Hill – November 2011 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• Gold Standard Program Evaluations, On a Shoestring Budget, by Jon Baron, Education Week – October 2011 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• Building the Connection between Policy and Evidence: The Obama Evidence-Based Initiatives, by Ron Haskins and Jon Baron, paper commissioned by the U.K. National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) – Sept 2011 (.pdf, 19 pages)

• How to Get Consumers to Spend Again, by Robert Shea and Jon Baron, The Fiscal Times – 2010 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• Long-Term Deficit Reduction: Less Pain, More Gain, by Robert M. Solow and Jon Baron, The Fiscal Times – 2010 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• Federal Programs for Youth: More of the Same Won’t Work, by Isabel Sawhill and Jon Baron, Youth Today – 2010 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• We Need a New Start for Head Start, by Isabel Sawhill and Jon Baron, Education Week– 2010 (.pdf, 3 pages)

• Randomized Controlled Trials: A Way to Stop Spinning Wheels, by Jon Baron, Education Week – 2009 (.pdf, 1 page)

• Addressing Colorado’s Budget Shortfall, by David Anderson, Denver Post – 2009 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• Making [Education] Policy Work: The Lesson From Medicine, by Jon Baron, Education Week – 2007 (.pdf, 3 pages)

 

Coalition Policy Papers

 

General Social Policy

• Proposed Social Spending Innovation Research (SSIR) Program: Harnessing American Entrepreneurial Talent to Solve Major U.S. Social Problems, February 2015 (.pdf, 3 pages + references)

• Proposal to Incorporate Evidence-Based Reforms into Major Federal Entitlement Programs, Addendum to testimony by Jon Baron before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources, April 2014 (.pdf, 3 pages)

• Demonstrating How Low-Cost Randomized Controlled Trials Can Drive Effective Social Spending: Project Overview and Request for Proposals, December 2013 (.pdf, 6 pages + references)

• Federal “Waivers” from Law and Regulation Should Be Used To Build Rigorous Evidence About How To Reduce Entitlement Spending, October 2013 (.pdf, 3 pages)

• A Different Way Forward in the War on Poverty, Based on Credible Evidence About “What Works”, Testimony by Jon Baron before the House Budget Committee, July 2013 (.pdf, 5 pages + references)

• Increasing the Effectiveness of Social Spending While Reducing Its Cost: An Evidence-Based Approach, Testimony by Jon Baron before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources, July 2013 (.pdf, 6 pages + references)

• OMB/CBO Budget Scoring Guidance May Create an Important New Incentive for Development and Expansion of Evidence-Based Programs, December 2011 (.pdf, 5 pages)

• CBO/OMB Budget Scoring Guidance Could Greatly Accelerate Development of Rigorous Evidence About “What Works” To Achieve Major Budget Savings, July 2011 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• Increasing the Independence of Federally-Funded Impact Evaluations, by Jacob Alex Klerman, Jon Baron, and Howard Rolston, July 2010 (.pdf, 4 pages)

• Increasing the Impact of Benefit-Cost Analysis on Social Policy: Next Steps Forward, by Monica Herk, June 2010 (.pdf, 9 pages)

• The Coalition’s Comments on the Social Innovation Fund, submitted to the Corporation for National and Community Service , 2009 (.pdf, 4 pages)

• Proposal: An Executive Order To Institutionalize Evidence-Based Approaches in Federal Social Programs, 2009 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• Suggestions for the Administration’s New Social Entrepreneurship Initiative: Focus on building a body of research-proven programs, shown to produce major gains in education, poverty reduction, crime prevention, and other areas, 2009 (.pdf, 3 pages)

• Invest in Research-Proven Programs for Children and Youth: A Key to Preventing Educational Failure, Substance Abuse, Crime, Teen Pregnancy, and Other Social Problems that Damage the Lives of Millions of Americans, 2008 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• A New Bipartisan Initiative for U.S. Social Programs: Evidence-Based Reforms Are Key To Rapid Progress in Education, Poverty Reduction, Crime Prevention, and Other Areas, 2008 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• Coordinated Initiatives Between Federal Research Agencies and Major Social Programs Can Rapidly Build Scientifically-Valid Knowledge About”What Works” in Social Policy, 2005  (.pdf, 3 pages)

• Linking Resources to Results, Council for Excellence in Government and Committee for Economic Development, 2001 (.pdf, 25 pages)

 

Crime/Substance Abuse

• Bringing Evidence-Driven Progress to Crime and Substance-Abuse Policy: A Recommended Federal Strategy, 2003  (.pdf, 28 pages)

 

Early Childhood

• In Support of the Reauthorization of HHS’s Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, With Recommendations for Improvement, Testimony by Jon Baron before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources, April 2014 (.pdf, 5 pages + addendum)

• HHS’s Home Visiting Program: Which Program Models Identified by HHS As “Evidence-Based” Are Most Likely To Produce Important Improvements in Lives of Children/Parents?, 2011 (.pdf, 8 pages + references)

• Coalition Comments on the Evaluation Plan for HHS’s Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, 2011 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• Coalition Comments on HHS’s Proposal to Recompete Low-Performing Head Start Agencies, 2010 (.pdf, 3 pages)

• Coalition Comments on HHS’s Evidence Criteria for its Home Visiting Program, 2010 (.pdf, 3 pages + references)

 

Education

• Proposed Social Spending Innovation Research (SSIR) Program: Harnessing American Entrepreneurial Talent to Solve Major U.S. Social Problems, February 2015 (.pdf, 3 pages + references)

• Can Using Rigorous Evidence To Guide Federal Education Funds Improve Student Achievement? Randomized Trials Show Encouraging Initial Results for DoED’s Investing in Innovation Fund, January 2014 (.pdf, 2 pages + references)

• Randomized Controlled Trials Commissioned by the Institute of Education Sciences Since 2002: How Many Found Positive Versus Weak or No Effects, July 2013 (.pdf, 1 page + references)

• Comments on the U.S. Department of Education’s proposal to advance the development and use of rigorous evidence in its grantmaking regulations, submitted by the Coalition and Results for America, 2013 (.pdf, 2 pages + references)

• National Board for Education Sciences (NBES) resolution urging Congress, in education legislation, to advance the use of credible evidence of effectiveness in decision-making, March 2011 (.pdf, 1 page + background).  The resolution is an NBES, rather than a Coalition, document (Coalition president Jon Baron chaired NBES in 2011).

• Federal “Waivers” from No Child Left Behind Should Be Used To Build Credible Evidence About What Works in K-12 Education, Jon Baron and Bridget Terry Long (NBES Chair and Vice Chair), July 2011 (.pdf, 3 pages)

• Coalition Comments on the U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation Fund, 2009 (.pdf, 3 pages + references)

• A Critical Missing Piece in American Education Policy, by Isabel Sawhill, Sally Shaywitz, Joseph Torgesen, and Jon Baron, 2007 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• Coalition’s Review of Federal Evaluations of STEM Education Programs, for the Academic Competitiveness Council, 2006 (.pdf, 5 pages)

• Bringing Evidence-Driven Progress To Education: A Recommended Strategy for the U.S. Department of Education, 2002 (.pdf, 34 pages)

 

Health Care

• Reduce the Explosive Growth in U.S. Health Care Costs through Rigorous Evidence About “What Works”, June 2011 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• Overlooked Strategies To Cut Health Care Costs, 2009 (.pdf, 2 pages)

 

Homeland/National Security

• Rigorously Evaluating Strategies for Enhancing U.S. Port Security, 2006 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• Rigorously Evaluating Strategies for Preparing Local Communities to Respond Effectively to Natural Disasters and Terrorist Attacks, 2006 (.pdf, pages)

• Rigorously Evaluating Strategies to Undermine Public Support for Terrorists’ Violent Ideology in the Muslim World, 2005 (.pdf, 3 pages)

 

Teen Pregnancy Prevention

• HHS’s Evidence-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program: Excellent First Step, But Only 2 of 28 Approved Models Have Strong Evidence of Effectiveness, 2010 (.pdf, 2 pages)

 

Technology Development

• Testimony before the House Science Committee on the need to rigorously evaluate government strategies to fund technology development, 2007 (.pdf, 4 pages)

 

Welfare and Employment

• Importance of Congressional Funding for Welfare Research, 2014 (.pdf, 2 pages)

 

External Assessments of the Coalition’s Work

• Review of the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy – March 2011 (.pdf, 5 pages)

• Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy: Its Role in Advancing Evidence-Based Reform, 2004-2009 – October 2009 (.pdf, 18 pages)

• A Preliminary Assessment of the OMB Help Desk, 2006 (.pdf, 8 pages)

• The Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy: Its Impact on Policy and Practice, 2004 (.pdf, 10 pages)

 

User-Friendly Guides to Research/Evaluation

• Key Items to Get Right When Conducting Randomized Controlled Trials of Social Programs, Arnold Ventures' Evidence-Based Policy Team, February 2016 (.pdf, 9 pages)

• Hierarchy of Evidence of Program Effectiveness, January 2015 (.pdf, 1 page)

• Which Study Designs Are Capable of Producing Valid Evidence About A Program’s Effectiveness? A Brief Overview – October 2014 (.pdf, 4 pages)

• Which Comparison-Group (“Quasi-Experimental”) Study Designs are Most Likely to Produce Valid Estimates of a Program’s Impact?: A Brief Overview and Sample Review Form, 2014 updated 2018 (.pdf, 3 pages + appendix)

• Practical Evaluation Strategies for Building a Body of Proven-Effective Social Programs: Suggestions for Research and Program Funders, 2013 (.pdf, 6 pages)

• Increasing the Success of Evaluation Studies in Building a Body of Effective, Evidence-Based Programs: Recommendations of a Peer-Review Panel, prepared for the Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, 2013 (.pdf, 7 pages)

• Which Nonprofit Organizations Are Effectively Delivering Evidence-Based Social Programs, With Close Adherence to the Program Model? An Exploratory Study, 2013 (.pdf, 4 pages)

• Rigorous Program Evaluations on a Budget: How Low-Cost Randomized Controlled Trials Are Possible in Many Areas of Social Policy, 2012 (.pdf, 6 pages)

• Checklist For Reviewing a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Social Program or Project, To Assess Whether It Produced Valid Evidence, 2010 (.pdf, 6 pages + cover)

• How to Effectively Use the U.S. Department of Education’s “Priority for Scientifically Based Evaluation Methods”: A Brief Guide for Program Offices, 2008 (.pdf, 24 pages)

• How to Find a Capable Evaluator to Conduct a Rigorous Evaluation of an Educational Program or Practice, 2007 (.pdf, 8 pages)

• Developing an Effective Evaluation Strategy: Suggestions for Federal and State Education Officials, 2007 (.pdf, 6 pages)

• Suggestions to Increase the Impact of your Research on Policy Decisions, by Jon Baron and Jerry Lee, Newsletter of the Academy of Experimental Criminology, 2007 (.pdf, 2 pages)

• Tools that OMB Examiners Can Use to Advance Rigorous Program Evaluations and the Use of Evaluation Findings in OMB/Agency Decision-Making, Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy working paper – authored by former OMB Deputy Associate Director Barry White, 2006  (.pdf, 8 pages)

• How to Report the Results of Your Study: A User-Friendly Guide for Evaluators of Educational Practices and Programs, Prepared in partnership with the What Works Clearinghouse, for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, 2005 (.pdf, 13 pages)

• How to Solicit Rigorous Evaluations of Mathematics and Science Partnerships (MSP) Projects: A User-Friendly Guide, Prepared in partnership with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, 2005 (.pdf, 17 pages)

• Identifying and Implementing Educational Practices Supported By Rigorous Evidence: A User-Friendly Guide, Prepared for the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, 2003 (.pdf, 28 pages)

• Education Department press release on the User-Friendly Guide, 2003 (.pdf, 1 page)