| Notes |
I’m writing to update you on an important and exciting transition in our work.
As you know, since the launch of the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization nearly 14 years ago, we have played a critical role in the inception and growth of what has been called “the golden age of evidence-based policy” (Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM)), “the coming of age of evidence-based policy making” (New York Times – Fixes), or – from a slightly different perspective – the “the quiet movement to make government fail less often.” (New York Times – The Upshot). The core concepts the Coalition has advanced since 2001 – (i) building the body of research-proven social programs through investment in rigorous, preferably randomized, impact evaluations, and (ii) incentivizing the adoption of those shown to produce sizable, sustained improvements in people’s lives – have been incorporated into law and policy across a number of important areas. In just the past couple of weeks, for instance:
• Congressman Paul Ryan and Senator Patty Murray introduced legislation to create a bipartisan Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking, whose responsibilities include (among other things), “mak[ing] recommendations on how best to incorporate outcomes measurement [and] institutionalize randomized controlled trials and rigorous impact analysis into program design.” |