ACF’s evaluation policy confirms our commitment to conducting evaluations and to using evidence from evaluations to inform policy and practice. ACF seeks to promote rigor, relevance, transparency, independence, and ethics in the conduct of evaluations. This policy addresses each of these principles.
ACF published the evaluation policy in the Federal Register on August 29, 2014: 79 FR 51574 (Aug. 29, 2014)
Watch this video to learn about the policy’s principles and how we use them to guide our work:
This evaluation policy builds on the Administration for Children and Families’ strong history of evaluation by outlining key principles to govern our planning, conduct, and use of evaluation. This policy reconfirms our commitment to conducting rigorous, relevant evaluations and to using evidence from evaluations to inform policy and practice. ACF seeks to promote rigor, relevance, transparency, independence, and ethics in the conduct of evaluations. This policy addresses each of these principles.
The mission of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is to foster health and well-being by providing federal leadership, partnership, and resources for the compassionate and effective delivery of human services. Our vision is children, youth, families, individuals, and communities who are resilient, safe, healthy, and economically secure. The importance of these goals demands that we continually innovate and improve, and that we evaluate our activities and those of our partners. Through evaluation, ACF and our partners can learn systematically so that we can make our services as effective as possible.
Evaluation produces one type of evidence. A learning organization with a culture of continual improvement requires many types of evidence, including not only evaluation but also descriptive research studies, performance measures, financial and cost data, survey statistics, and program administrative data. Further, continual improvement requires systematic approaches to using information, such as regular data-driven reviews of performance and progress. Although this policy focuses on evaluation, the principles and many of the specifics apply to the development and use of other types of information as well.
This policy applies to all ACF-sponsored evaluations. While much of ACF’s evaluation activity is overseen by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE), ACF program offices also sponsor evaluations through dedicated contracts or as part of their grant-making. In order to promote quality, coordination, and usefulness in ACF’s evaluation activities, ACF program offices will consult with OPRE in developing evaluation activities. Program offices will discuss evaluation projects with OPRE in early stages to clarify evaluation questions and methodological options for addressing them, and as activities progress OPRE will review designs, plans, and reports. Program offices may also ask OPRE to design and oversee evaluation projects on their behalf or in collaboration with program office staff.
Learn more about each of the five principles in the evaluation policy -- Rigor, Relevance, Transparency, Independence, and Ethics: