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This version was published on March 1, 2008
American Journal of Evaluation, Vol. 29, No. 1, 29-47 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1098214007313742

The Fairy Godmother—and Her Warts

Making the Dream of Evidence-Based Policy Come True

Carol H. Weiss

Harvard Graduate School of Education

Erin Murphy-Graham

University of California

Anthony Petrosino

WestED

Allison G. Gandhi

American Institutes for Research

Evaluators sometimes wish for a Fairy Godmother who would make decision makers pay attention to evaluation findings when choosing programs to implement. The U.S. Department of Education came close to creating such a Fairy Godmother when it required school districts to choose drug abuse prevention programs only if their effectiveness was supported by "scientific" evidence. The experience showed advantages of such a procedure (e.g., reduction in support for D.A.R.E., which evaluation had found wanting) but also shortcomings (limited and in some cases questionable evaluation evidence in support of other programs). Federal procedures for identifying successful programs appeared biased. In addition, the Fairy Godmother discounted the professional judgment of local educators and did little to improve the fit of programs to local conditions. Nevertheless, giving evaluation more clout is a worthwhile way to increase the rationality of decision making. The authors recommend research on procedures used by other agencies to achieve similar aims.

Key Words: evidence-based policy • Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) • research utilization • influence of evaluation


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