We readily assume that because one program doesn’t work, all similar ones are likely to be equally unsuccessful. Yet the opposite may often be true. It’s a complex world. There are a hundred reasons why programs fail and a hundred configurations that can fail. But the point is to find the one in 100 that works and understand it.
There are a number of sites that are particularly useful:
- New York Times, The Fix (Tina Rosenberg and Dowser’s creator, David Bornstein)
- Rand Corporation’s Promising Practices Network
- Harvard’s Evaluation Center
- U.S. Dept. of Education