Reviewing the Reviews: Examining Similarities and Differences Between Federally Funded Evidence Reviews

摘要

Background: The federal government's emphasis on supporting the implementation of evidence-based programs has fueled a need to conduct and assess rigorous evaluations of programs. Through partnerships with researchers, policy makers, and practitioners, evidence reviewsprojects that identify, assess, and summarize existing research in a given areaplay an important role in supporting the quality of these evaluations and how the findings are used. These reviews encourage the use of sound scientific principles to identify, select, and implement evidence-based programs. The goals and standards of each review determine its conclusions about whether a given evaluation is of high quality or a program is effective. It can be difficult for decision makers to synthesize the body of evidence when faced with results from multiple program evaluations.