The evaluation of the Research to Action project was conducted using an Outcome Mapping (OM) methodology (Earl et al. 2001) with a mixed-methods, repeat survey (before/after) study design. This design uses concurrent measurement of process and outcome indicators at baseline and follow-up. The RTA project proved effective at improving work environments and thereby promoting the retention and rec...

Results: Key indicators of ALR’s overall progress confirmed ALR’s success across its three goals: (1) establishing a strong research base: 309 publications filling major knowledge gaps; (2) building an interdisciplinary and diverse field: grantees represented 31 disciplines, with more than one quarter (28%) of investigators having r5 years of experience, of which 39% were people of color; and (...

Child labour is an issue of growing concern in Afghanistan. According to recent estimates, one in four Afghan children aged seven to 14 is engaged in some form of work.1 This briefing paper explores why children in Afghanistan work, focusing specifically on factors that influence decision-making at the household level. Drawing on findings from an in-depth, qualitative study of poor households t...

This chapter provides a selective review of some contemporary approaches to program evaluation. One motivation for our review is the recent emergence and increasing use of a particular kind of “program” in applied microeconomic research, the so-called Regression Discontinuity (RD) Design of Thistlethwaite and Campbell (1960). We organize our discussion of these various research designs by how t...

an integrated program of standards, instruction, professional development, and assessments. The Pacesetter curriculum includes rigorous fourth-year high school courses in English and mathematics, and a third-level course in Spanish. The professional development component is the backbone of the Pacesetter program. This professional development focuses on innovative pedagogy and instructional str...

Design has been recognized for a long time both as art and as science. In the sixties of the previous century design-oriented research began to draw the attention of scientific researchers and methodologists, not only in technical engineering but also in the social sciences. However, a rather limited methodology for design-oriented research has been developed, especially as to the social scienc...