Priorities for a New Decade: Making (More) Social Programs Work (Better)

Abstract

The Challenge

Thirty years ago, the social sector was rich with innovative models and services but starved for hard evidence that any of them would actually work. In those days, when Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) was just getting started, there were virtually no organizations equipped to find and evaluate promising programs, nor was there any consensus about the best way to measure program effectiveness.

We are now faced with the grittier issue of how to actually improve program effectiveness—and do so at a scale that stands any chance of ameliorating the grave social problems that continue to plague our country.

Much has changed in three decades. Today a whole industry stands ready and willing to evaluate any new, old, promising or faltering program. Public and private funders increasingly ask for evidence of effectiveness from the programs they support. Internet-based tools designed to enhance program effectiveness abound. One evaluation method in particular—the Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)—is now generally regarded as the most scientifically rigorous and accepted way to evaluate social programs, and its use is spreading.¹ The wealth of new evaluators and research methods has produced volumes of information and analysis that were scarcely imaginable three decades ago.