How “official” evidence reviews can make ineffective programs appear effective (part one in a series)
Highlights: A recent Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) report reviews existing evidence on the long-term effects of four home visiting program models for families with young children. Report findings include: (i) “all four… models have found improvements...Yes, some blockbuster RCT findings successfully replicate: Per Scholas employment/training produces major earnings gains for low-income workers
Highlights: In social policy as in medicine, many positive initial research findings for a program or treatment are not reproduced in subsequent rigorous evaluations. The good news is that some important positive findings do reproduce. This report highlights a recent...Credible, actionable evidence on how to prevent sexual assault on university campuses
Highlights: We highlight recent results of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a sexual assault resistance program for first-year female university students. The RCT found that the program nearly halved the incidence of rape over a 12-month period, from 9.8 percent...Overstated findings, published in Science, on long-term health effects of a well-known early childhood program
Highlights: We review an article, published in a leading scientific journal (Science), that reported on long-term health effects of the Abecedarian early childhood program as measured in a randomized trial. The article reported that the program, which provided...Disappointing findings on Conditional Cash Transfers as a tool to break the poverty cycle in the United States
Highlights: Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs, which have been implemented in more than 60 countries, provide cash payments to poor families contingent on their meeting certain conditions such as using preventive healthcare, keeping children enrolled in school,...An exciting new finding in the effort to prevent teen pregnancy (but a replication study is needed)
Highlights: We review a rare teen pregnancy prevention program—Teen Options to Prevent Pregnancy (TOPP)—that has credible evidence of a major effect on pregnancies and births. A recent federally-funded randomized controlled trial found that TOPP reduced the pregnancy...If at first you succeed, try again!
Highlights: We review a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Honest Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE), a program for probationers that provides swift and certain sanctions—such as brief jail time—for any probation violation. This was a replication RCT,...Promising new evidence in the effort to prevent youth crime
Highlights: We review a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Reading for Life, a mentoring and character development program for juvenile offenders. Our review found this to be a well-conducted RCT, showing that the program reduced the rate of subsequent re-arrests....An effective program for preventing unintended pregnancies? Not so fast.
Highlights: We review a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a program designed to prevent unintended pregnancies among young women. The study was published in a leading, peer-reviewed scientific journal—The Lancet—and generated significant attention, including...Showing 10 of 20 Reviews