OPRE is responsible for building evidence and answering empirical questions related to the human services programs provided by ACF and for promoting the use of evidence to inform policy and practice. To do so, OPRE uses a variety of research and evaluation methods that are rigorous, relevant, transparent, independent, and ethical. OPRE’s work on methods and tools includes an ongoing Methods Inquiry project and convening annual meetings on innovative methods.
The Methods Inquiries project helps ensure that OPRE-funded research uses the most scientifically advanced and appropriately applied methods possible. To accomplish this goal, OPRE regularly convenes meetings of scientists and research experts to advance its understanding of critical topics in social science research methodology. In addition to OPRE staff, these meetings include participants from a variety of contexts including academia, government, and the private sector. The meetings explore innovations in research design, analytic techniques, and measurement. Additionally, the Methods Inquiries project includes an ongoing seminar series; publications with further information on topics addressed in the meetings; and ad hoc responses to emerging methodological issues.
Other OPRE projects and publications also focus on or feature specific methodological topics and inquiries. Learn more about OPRE’s work related to methods and tools below.
OPRE Innovative Methods Meeting
To date, OPRE has sponsored 14 meetings on innovative methods. Meeting attendees discuss topics such as innovative research methods and designs, measurement development, and tools for understanding different types of research and evaluation. These meetings are intended to help OPRE explore recent methodological advances, gaps in current knowledge and implementation, and opportunities to apply innovative methods to government-funded research and evaluation.
Projects
Explore the Evidence Capacity Support project’s work to strengthen evidence culture, evidence infrastructure, data access, knowledge and skills, and dissemination, while incorporating principles of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018.
CIRCLE-HV supports two types of research-practice collaborations to build evidence and understanding about home visiting and well-being in Native communities.
Learn about this project’s work to explore how child care and Head Start programs can improve the quality of social-emotional learning services received by young children while institutionalizing continuous quality improvement activities.
Explore OPRE's work related to the Program Manager's Guide to Evaluation, evaluation technical assistance resources, and resources and summaries of our annual innovative methods meetings.
Discover the Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse and interventions that aim to improve employment outcomes, reduce employment challenges, support self-sufficiency, and advance education and training for populations with a low income.
Explore OPRE's Tribal Home Visiting Evaluation Institute (TEI) page for resources from data and evaluation capacity building efforts in Tribal Home Visiting.
Explore how the Tribal Research Center for Early Childhood Development and Systems (TRC) promotes excellence in community-based participatory research and evaluation of ACF early childhood initiatives that serve tribal communities.
Explore OPRE's work in exploring Bayesian methods -- how they can be applied, the BASIE framework, how Bayesian methods can be used in social policy research, FAQs.
The Fathers and Continuous Learning project is testing the use of a continuous learning methodology, the Breakthrough Series Collaborative, to increase father and paternal relative engagement in the child welfare system.
Explore reports from OPRE's Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Impact Study.
In this project, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is exploring the application of Human-centered Design (HCD) across its service delivery programs at the federal, state, and local levels. To date, little is known regarding what HCD looks like in the context of human services, the requirements for implementation across a range of programs; the measurable outcomes and effectiveness of HCD; the evaluability of HCD; and the sustainability of HCD in practice.
The Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation-Strong Start (MIHOPE-Strong Start) was launched in 2012 to evaluate the effectiveness of evidence-based home visiting for improving prenatal and birth outcomes and reducing health care...
The Permanency Innovations Initiative (PII) is a multi-site federal demonstration project designed to improve permanency outcomes among children in foster care who have the most serious barriers to permanency. This initiative supports six grantees, each with a unique intervention designed to help a specific subgroup of children leave foster care in fewer than three years.
Good program evaluations assess program performance, measure impacts on families and communities, and document our success. With this information, programs are better able to direct limited resources to where they are most needed and most effective in...
Explore tools and resources developed for Tribal TANF Child Welfare Coordination Grantees.