Evaluation Policies

Evaluation policies are agency-wide frameworks that establish principles, standards, and practices governing all evaluation work conducted by or for an agency. Required by the Evidence Act and detailed in White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo M-20-12, these policies must affirm the agency's commitment to conducting rigorous, relevant evaluations and using evidence to inform policy and practice. The policies operationalize the five evaluation standards that OMB established:

• Rigor (using appropriate methods and qualified evaluators)
• Relevance and utility (addressing priority questions useful for decision-making)
• Independence and objectivity (protecting from bias and political interference)
• Transparency (making designs and findings publicly available
• Ethics (safeguarding participants' dignity, rights, safety, and privacy)

Evaluation policies institutionalize quality standards and protect evaluation integrity. The policies apply not just to agency evaluation offices, but to all units conducting evaluations, outside contractors, and grant recipients performing evaluation work on behalf of the agency. Strong evaluation policies create frameworks for building and maintaining high-quality evaluation capacity, guide decisions throughout the evaluation lifecycle, and provide evaluators with authority to maintain independence from programmatic and political pressures.