Tag Archives: evidence

How much evidence is needed for policy?

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Patricia Rogers

In the last few days before the Australian federal election, a curious $5million advertising campaign has been launched which claims to be advocating evidence-based policy but does nothing of the kind.
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Posted in Appropriate inference, Appropriate measurement, Business & industry, Causal inference, Government programs, Health | Tagged , | 1 Comment

What you measure and how you measure it – the Greek financial example

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Patricia Rogers

A salutary reminder that just because things are measured precisely (such as money) doesn’t mean that the measurements are valid or useful. As reported by Louise Story, Landon Thomas Jr and Nelson D. Schwartz, in the New York Times on … Continue reading →

Posted in Appropriate measurement, Government programs | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why genuine evaluation must include causal inference

Posted on February 20, 2010 by Jane Davidson

Is it OK to just document whatever changes happen to people over the life of the program and summarize these in an evaluation report under a heading called “Outcomes”? What if you point out in a disclaimer that you haven’t got any evidence that the program contributed to them? What if you don’t exactly call them “outcomes”? What if it’s just a low-budget evaluation? Answers: No, no, no, and NO! Here’s why … Continue reading →

Posted in Causal inference, Causal inference strategies | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Misreporting evaluation findings – Example 1

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Patricia Rogers

Part of the concern with the report we discussed yesterday (which tracked changes in school milk purchases only without any data on calorie intake or obesity) was in how easily carefully phrased conclusions could be paraphrased as bold statements that … Continue reading →

Posted in Appropriate reporting, Health | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

What is Genuine Evaluation?

Posted on January 27, 2010 by Patricia Rogers & Jane Davidson

When we think about the type of evaluation we want to do and to support, and the types we want to hold up for critique and as cautionary tales, five elements stand out: VALUE-BASED -transparent and defensible values (criteria of … Continue reading →

Posted in About/Definition, Appropriate criteria and standards, Appropriate inference, Appropriate measurement, Appropriate reporting, Causal inference, Values-based | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments