RPG Cross-Site Evaluation and Technical Assistance: First Annual Report

Grantees and Mathematica worked together to refine the evaluation designs grantees had proposed to meet the Children’s Bureau’s goal of building on effective interventions for families at risk of adult substance use dependence and child maltreatment. Mathematica’s evaluability assessment found that seven of the evaluations could, if well-implemented, provide strong evidence as to the effectiveness of their projects. Five evaluations could provide evidence their programs were promising, four could provide limited evidence of effectiveness, and three could provide mainly descriptive information. Having a longer program and evaluation planning period, and knowing more about evaluation requirements in advance, could have benefitted grantees in their planning efforts.