The past 40 years have witnessed major advances in the methodology and practice of evaluation and policy research supported by the federal government, as well as by state governments and private foundations. The backbone of these advances was provided by the broad acceptance of the randomized social experiment as a viable methodology for evaluating the potential impacts of policy change, and in more recent years, in testing the effectiveness of ongoing programs. By 2003, no less than 240 evaluations had been completed, and the number continues to mount. In addition, countless evaluations have used statistical techniques to approximate the benefits of randomized trials. In tandem with this development, an industry of policy research organizations emerged to conduct these evaluations, including my own institution, Mathematica Policy Research (MPR), and others such as Abt Associates, MDRC, and RAND. The aforementioned organizations have established objectivity and independence as core values, and by and large have successfully defended these values in their conduct with funding organizations. Our track record establishes that government supported policy research can be and is independent, with proper safeguards.
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