Looking ahead to 2025, the Data Foundation’s Center for Evidence Capacity reflects on the evaluation community's significant achievements throughout 2024. Since its launch in June 2024, the Data Foundation’s Center for Evidence Capacity has closely monitored how evaluation, data, and evidence-building activities shape key decisions about public programs and policy. This review highlights the influential legislation, regulations, and collaborations that defined federal evaluation policy and practices during a transformative year for evidence-informed policymaking in the United States.
Evidence Act Milestone
The Data Foundation kicked off 2024 celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (Evidence Act), marking a milestone year for federal evaluation policy. Through collaborative efforts, research, and sustained commitment, federal agencies have advanced from initial implementation to deeper integration of the Evidence Act's principles.
- In January, our President keynoted the federal government’s celebration of the Evidence Act and recognized the accomplishments of the community.
- The Data Foundation also joined the American Evaluation Association, the Government Accountability Office, and Washington Evaluators for a webinar exploring the impacts of the Evidence Act on the field of program evaluation over the past five years.
- Federal agencies published their annual evaluation plans in April, demonstrating their commitment to building and sustaining evaluation capacity.
- In June, the Data Foundation published a report analyzing the learning agendas of 23 federal agencies, clearly showing these plans are being employed by agencies as roadmaps for evidence-informed decision making.
2024 Survey of Federal Evaluation Officials
A report by the Data Foundation published in November, in partnership with the American Evaluation Association, Measuring Progress: 2024 Survey of Federal Evaluation Officials, reveals that evaluation officials are making meaningful progress in using data to drive decisions at federal agencies. The survey results demonstrate:
- That the Evidence Act's implementation has catalyzed significant positive change across federal agencies in the pursuit of data-driven decision-making.
- Although the missions specific to evaluation offices differ with agencies’ programmatic missions, respondents indicated strong optimism about success, with 83% of respondents reporting that the Evidence Act helped them achieve their objectives.
- A majority of evaluation officials said they work closely with program staff (61%), and about half of respondents regularly collaborate with other intra-agency officials such as Chief Data Officers and Statistical Officials, among others.
- A broadening scope of responsibilities and integration with agency decision-making brings both opportunities and challenges for evaluation officials. Despite success in implementing the various aspects of their agencies’ evaluation missions, only between 20% to 35% of officials perceived resources such as funding and staffing to be “sufficient” in supporting their activities.
- A variety of opportunities on the horizon for the federal evaluation community, such as a growing demand for evaluations, data, and the use of new tools such as artificial intelligence and interagency working groups.
Strategic Advancements of Evaluation
Beyond compliance with existing requirements, 2024 saw federal agencies and policymakers take strategic steps to expand and deepen their commitment to evaluation. New frameworks, guidance documents, and legislation emerged that will bolster the influence of the evaluation community and evidence-informed decision making in the years to come.
- Leaders in many agencies are adopting principles and practices from the Evidence Act beyond the requirements of the law. In January, the Department of the Treasury released a topical Economic Recovery Learning Agenda, inviting the research community to collaborate on evaluating the effectiveness and equity of recovery programs.
- Recognizing evaluation as a key function of government, White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) updated the Uniform Grants Guidance to direct both agencies and grant recipients to closely consider available evidence in planning programs and to dedicate funding to future evaluation activities.
- In September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the 2024 CDC Program Evaluation Framework, an update to the highly influential framework first published in 1999, integrating two decades of advancements in the fields of evaluation and public health with significant input from the evaluation community.
- The OMB Evidence Team carried out the first-of-its-kind President’s Management Agenda (PMA) Learning Agenda over the course of the Biden-Harris administration, posing key questions about how to make the government more equitable, effective, and accountable. At the end of the year, the Evidence Team reflected on the contributions of the Learning Agenda toward expanding the evidence base and its influence on government-wide management practices.
- Congress took action to create a more open and equitable federal grant-making process that will support evaluation capacity, passing the Data Foundation-endorsed Grant Transparency Act. The Grant Transparency Act, signed into law in December, requires agencies to disclose their rating and evaluation criteria for grants.
Tools for Federal Evidence
To support the growing evaluation ecosystem across federal agencies, new digital platforms and practical resources emerged to make evaluation more accessible and effective. OMB led several initiatives to centralize and streamline access to evaluation tools and opportunities:
- OMB launched Evaluation.gov as a central hub for evaluation activities in government. The site provides resources including an interactive Learning Agenda Questions Dashboard and a curated Federal Evaluation Toolkit to help agency staff better understand evaluation with resources to support Evidence Act implementation.
- The OMB Evidence Team also launched an Evidence Project Portal – consolidating opportunities for outside researchers to contribute to examining agencies’ learning agenda questions and building useful evidence across the federal government. Many of these opportunities align with agency learning agendas and annual evaluation plans.
- One notable opportunity was to develop a toolkit to help the government evaluate the effectiveness of public participation and community engagement approaches, which the Data Foundation provided comments on. The final community engagement toolkit was published in December, available for use by agencies and researchers to plan and execute evaluations of engagement activities.
Evaluation Community Achievements
The evaluation community thrived through in-person and virtual gatherings in 2024, creating valuable opportunities for practitioners, researchers, and federal leaders to exchange ideas, build connections, and recognize excellence in the field. These collaborative spaces strengthened the bonds between evaluation professionals while advancing key conversations about the future of evidence-informed policymaking.
- GAO joined the Data Foundation in September for an engaging discussion on the future of evaluation research from the editors and contributors behind the recently published “Research Handbook on Program Evaluation.”
- In October, the Evaluation Officer Council announced the winners of the Fourth Annual Evaluation Community Awards Program. These awards honor federal civil service leaders working tirelessly to advance evaluation and evidence-based policymaking across the federal government.
- This year’s American Evaluation Association conference brought together over 3,000 evaluators for over 300 sessions to dialogue around the most pressing issues in the field and the conference theme, “Amplifying & Empowering Voices in Evaluation.” Data Foundation staff participated in multiple sessions about the Evidence Act and evaluation policy, along with Data Coalition members.
- In November, the Data Foundation’s govDATAx 2024 Summit brought together a diverse group of leaders from across the data and evidence communities to reflect on the achievements of the past five years and collectively chart a vision for the years to come.
- To close the year, six federal leaders were recognized at the Data Foundation’s 2024 Datum Awards. Shawn Klimek, Ph.D., was awarded the Evaluation Officer Award for his work in the U.S. Department of Commerce overhauling the department’s evaluation plan and leading significant collaborations to facilitate evaluation.
In the year ahead, the evaluation community carries momentum built through significant advances in policy, practice, and collaboration. The achievements and events of 2024 — from the broadening applications of Evidence Act principles to expanding cross-government partnerships — demonstrate the growth and maturation of federal evaluation. With strong frameworks in place and a clear commitment to learning across the federal government – alongside partnerships across the evaluation community – the Data Foundation looks forward to continuing the work of advancing evidence-informed policymaking into the new year, administration, and Congress.
