Last week, I wrote about what the Evidence Act is and what its goals are. The reason for this post was because I attended a panel of government officials and other experts talk about how things had been going over the last five years at last month’s Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management annual conference that helped me understand the importance of the federal evidence act.
While there is still certainly a lot of room for improvement of federal evaluation practices as agencies further develop their own evaluation capacity and learn how to better cooperate, there have been a lot of major advances already. Here are the five most significant accomplishments of the Evidence Act so far.
Designation of Evaluation Officers
Agencies have appointed evaluation officers to coordinate and oversee evaluation activities at the agency level, ensuring management is available for a structured approach to evidence-building. These officers play a crucial role in implementing evidence-building plans, assessing the agency's evaluation capacity, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
Launch of evaluation.gov
Since its launch in August 2021, evaluation.gov has served as a central hub for evaluation efforts across the federal government. This platform enhances transparency and accessibility, allowing the public and government employees to access and engage with evaluation activities. The site also has a LinkedIn account and newsletter, which each broaden its reach and impact.
Publication of Learning Agendas and Evaluation Plans
Agencies have published inaugural learning agendas, capacity assessments, and four years of annual evaluation plans. These documents guide agencies' evaluation efforts, ensuring that they are aligned with strategic goals and that they address relevant policy questions using evidence-based methods.
Government-wide Standards for Program Evaluation
The Office of Management and Budget published the first-ever government-wide standards for program evaluation, emphasizing relevance and utility, rigor, independence and objectivity, transparency, and ethics. These standards provide a consistent framework for conducting high-quality evaluations across all federal agencies.
Support and Development for Evaluators
The federal evaluation community has developed and participated in numerous events, workshops, and resources to support evaluators. Notable initiatives include the Year of Evidence for Action forum series, over 60 evaluation-focused workshops, and the Federal Evaluation Toolkit. Additionally, the inaugural Evidence-Based Decision-Making Leadership Academy helps senior Federal executives foster a culture of evidence and learning within their organizations.
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Seeing such a strong commitment to evidence-based policymaking at the federal level is encouraging for an analyst to see. The experts that work in federal agencies have valuable information for policymakers.Having well-defined systems through the Evidence Act for sharing that information should lead to better outcomes for everyone.
At Scioto Analysis, this is the kind of work we hope to bring to state and local governments. The scope of the Evidence Act is massive and would be largely infeasible for state and local governments to replicate in full, but even smaller scale evaluation and analysis can provide strong returns on investment.
State and local governments should take the lessons learned from these first five years of the Evidence Act and apply them to their own policymaking where possible. 2025 will be a new year with many new lawmakers across all levels of government. Hopefully these new faces will be open to more collaboration and more commitment to evidence-based policymaking.