Introduction
Research and evaluation play an important role in supporting government agencies in making optimal policy, programmatic, and operational decisions. This guide provides an annotated list of selected written and online resources to support Child Care and Development Fund lead agencies seeking to build research and evaluation capacity. Listings point readers to user-friendly, practical tools on the following subjects:
This 2019 edition contains publications that were released or came to the authors’ attention after completion of the earlier edition. A previous edition of this resource guide, released in June 2018, can be found here: https://urbn.is/2L1DHun .
Methods
The purpose of this guide is to help CCDF lead agencies quickly identify tools to meet their information needs. As a result, the guide limits the number of resources in a given category or subcategory to no more than eight. Potential resources for the guide were identified through scans of selected websites, keyword searches on Child Care and Early Education Resources Connections, expert recommendations, and through a review of citations in found resources and other bibliographies. Within each topic area, resources were evaluated and selected for inclusion according to the following criteria: relevant for CCDF lead agencies, user-friendly, published after 2001, freely available online, and minimally duplicative of other resources included in the guide. When materials were duplicative, the resource that best addressed the other criteria was chosen. Some criteria (publication date and online availability) were relaxed if the resource met a unique need that was not addressed by a resource meeting the criteria. The guide was initially released in June 2018 and updated in July 2019, and it may be updated periodically. We expect to release one more updated resource guide with additional or alternative resources, chosen in consultation with the project officer to best meet the needs of grantees and other CCDF lead agencies.
Related Documents
The previous version of this document, published in 2018, is available here:
Citation
Rohacek, Monica, Amelia Coffey, Julia Isaacs, and Kathryn Stephens. (2019). Research and Evaluation Capacity Building: A Resource Guide for Child Care and Development Fund Lead Agencies (Revised 2019), OPRE Report #: 2019-74. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.