Assessing and Improving State Social Service Programs. Volume I. Study Report

摘要

The report responds to Section 2355 of the 1981 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. The first activity pursued to develop this report was a review of existing literature on effectiveness and efficiency and federal experience with incentive systems. The literature review focused on actual criteria and mechanisms used by the States. The second major activity was a field study in seven states--Maine, Iowa, Wisconsin, Washington, Colorado, Florida and Texas. The study consisted primarily of discussions with staff involved in the administrative, policymaking, or analytic responsibility of the state's social service agency. Materials gathered in the seven states revealed that there are several operational definitions of program effectiveness. Such definitions were either based on types and amount of service delivery, changes in client status, reactions of the community to a program, or procedural compliance. To judge the effectiveness and efficiency of social service programs, several criteria were used. These included comparing a program's current performance to pre-specified performance targets, to the performance of the program at earlier time points, to the performance of comparative programs, or to the performance of different organizational units. The factors which lead to a conducive environment for assessment are described in the report.