Projects

Project Overview

The Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation’s (OPRE) research portfolio addresses poverty, employment and training, child and youth development, child welfare, family strengthening and fatherhood, childcare and other work supports, and cash assistance.

OPRE provides guidance and technical assistance across these program areas, supporting research and evaluation methods, dissemination, policy analysis, and performance measurement. OPRE also engages experts across government, academic, and private research organizations to keep up to date on innovative methodologies.

OPRE shares information with stakeholders through regular meetings, seminars, and a larger annual conference to help ensure rigor in the methods used to assess government programs. This project seeks to advance the federal government’s understanding and use of rigorous research to support the development of evidence-based social policy. Insight’s role is to—

• Facilitate expert meetings on scientific research methodologies.
• Disseminate research and innovative methodologies to a broad audience of stakeholders to advance the social policy research field.

Products

Meeting website, final report, dissemination plan

• Issue briefs
  Bayesian Inference for Social Policy Research (OPRE Report 2019-36)
  Moving Beyond Statistical Significance: THE BASIE (BAyeSian Interpretation of Estimates) Framework for Interpreting Findings From Impact Evaluations (OPRE Report 2019-35)
• Meeting summary memo
  Bayesian Methods for Social Policy Research and Evaluation (OPRE Report 2018-38)
• Frequently asked questions and recommended resources
  Understanding Bayesian Statistics: Frequently Asked Questions and Recommended Resources (OPRE Report 2018-54)