What Works in Social Policy?
Findings From Well-Conducted Randomized Controlled Trials
Problem: U.S. social programs, set up to address important problems, often fall short by funding specific models/strategies (“interventions”) that are not effective. When evaluated in scientifically rigorous studies, government-funded social interventions – such as K-12 educational curricula, job training projects, and crime prevention efforts – are frequently found ineffective or marginally effective. Those interventions found to produce sizeable, sustained effects on important life outcomes tend to be the exception. Meanwhile, respected government measures show that the United States has not made significant progress over many years in key areas such as reducing poverty and increasing K-12 educational achievement.
To Help Address This Problem: This site seeks to identify those social interventions shown in rigorous studies to produce sizable, sustained benefits to participants and/or society. The purpose is to enable policymakers and practitioners to readily distinguish the few interventions that are truly backed by rigorous evidence from the many that claim to be, so that they can use such knowledge to improve the lives of the people they serve. Although we support many types of research to develop and identify promising interventions, this site’s discussion is limited to the results of well-conducted randomized controlled trials, consistent with a recent National Academy of Sciences recommendation that evidence of effectiveness generally cannot be considered definitive without ultimate confirmation in such trials.
See Intervention List Below. Those found to meet the Congressionally-established “Top Tier” evidence standard, as determined by an expert review process that Congress is assessing, are denoted Top Tier. The other listed interventions have been found highly promising by Coalition staff but have not yet been found to meet the Top Tier standard (in some cases, because they have not yet undergone a Top Tier review).
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INTERVENTIONS
EARLY CHILDHOOD
Top Tier Nurse-Family Partnership (A nurse home visitation program for low-income, pregnant women): Randomized controlled trials show major impact on life outcomes of the mothers and their children.
Abecedarian Project (High-quality child care/preschool for children from disadvantaged backgrounds): Randomized controlled trial shows major impact on educational and life outcomes; we note, however, that this was a demonstration project, and it is not yet known if the results can be replicated on a broader scale in typical classroom settings.
Perry Preschool Project (High-quality preschool for children from disadvantaged backgrounds): Randomized controlled trial shows major impact on educational and life outcomes; we note, however, that this was a demonstration project, and it is not yet known if the results can be replicated on a broader scale in typical classroom settings.
Triple P – Positive Parenting Program (A system of parenting programs for families with young children): Randomized controlled trial of the system, implemented county-wide for families with children ages 0-8, shows sizable reduction in child maltreatment.
Review of the Evidence: Do Early Childhood Intervention Programs Really Work?
EDUCATION (K-12)
Top Tier Career Academies (Small learning communities in low-income high schools, offering academic and career/technical courses as well as workplace opportunities): Randomized controlled trial shows a sizable positive impact on earnings of participants eight years after their scheduled high school graduation.
Top Tier Success for All (A school-wide reform program, primarily for high-poverty elementary schools, with a strong emphasis on reading instruction): Randomized controlled trial shows positive impact in raising school-wide reading achievement in grades K-2.
Check and Connect (Dropout prevention program for high school students with learning, emotional, and/or behavioral disabilities): Randomized controlled trials show a sizable decrease in students’ dropout rates, and increase in attendance and academic credits earned.
Good Behavior Game (A 1st-2nd grade classroom management strategy for decreasing disruptive/aggressive behavior): Randomized controlled trials show major reductions in students’ subsequent substance abuse, and behavioral and mental health disorders.
SMART – Start Making a Reader Today (Volunteer reading tutoring program for at-risk readers in early elementary school): Randomized controlled trial shows this low-cost intervention has sizable positive impact on students’ reading ability.
Tutoring with the Lindamood Phonemic Sequencing reading curriculum (An intervention for at-risk readers in grades K-2): Randomized controlled trial shows sizable positive impacts on reading ability for students with poor phonological processing (e.g., letter naming, and awareness of the sounds within words).
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
Top Tier Carrera Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program (A comprehensive, year-round youth development program for economically disadvantaged teens): Multi-site randomized controlled trial shows sizable reductions in teen pregnancy and births, and increases in high school graduation and college enrollment.
Big Brothers Big Sisters (Volunteer mentoring program for disadvantaged youth, ages 6-18): Randomized controlled trial shows sizable decrease in youths’ drug and alcohol use and violent behavior.
CRIME/VIOLENCE PREVENTION
Top Tier Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (A foster care intervention for severely delinquent youths): Randomized controlled trials show sizable reductions in youths’ criminal activity.
Amity Prison Therapeutic Community (Provides counseling/decision-making skills to inmates with drug problems, to prepare them for re-entry into the community): Randomized controlled trial shows reduction in reincarceration rate, and increase in average time to reincarceration.
Multisystemic Therapy for Juvenile Offenders (A treatment targeting multiple factors linked to anti-social juvenile behavior): Randomized controlled trials show sizable decrease in criminal behavior by juvenile offenders, but effectiveness may depend critically (i) on close adherence to the intervention’s key features and (ii) population/setting in which it is implemented.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION AND TREATMENT
Top Tier LifeSkills Training (Middle school substance abuse prevention curriculum): Randomized controlled trials show sizable decrease in students’ substance abuse.
Top Tier Staying Free (A low-cost smoking cessation program for hospitalized smokers who are willing to make a quit attempt): Randomized controlled trials show sizable increase in confirmed abstinence from smoking one year after patient discharge from the hospital.
MENTAL HEALTH
Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Depression prevention program for youth at elevated risk of serious depression): Randomized controlled trials show sizable effect in preventing clinical depression.
EMPLOYMENT AND WELFARE
Canadian Self-Sufficiency Project (Earnings supplements for long-term welfare recipients who find full-time work and leave welfare): Randomized controlled trials show sizable increase in participants’ employment rates, job earnings, and family income; and reductions in poverty and welfare dependency.
Los Angeles Jobs-First Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) Program (to quickly move welfare recipients into the workforce): Randomized controlled trial shows sizable increase in employment rates and job earnings, reduction in welfare dependency, and savings to the government.
Minnesota Family Investment Program (Earnings supplements for welfare recipients who find work): Randomized controlled trial shows a sizable increase in employment and earnings, and reduction in poverty rates, for single-parent, long-term welfare recipients (but not other welfare recipients).
Portland Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) Program (to quickly move welfare recipients into the workforce): Randomized controlled trial shows sizable increase in employment rates and job earnings, reduction in welfare dependency, and savings to the government.
Riverside Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) Program (to quickly move welfare recipients into the workforce): Randomized controlled trial shows sizable increase in employment rates and job earnings, reduction in welfare dependency, and savings to the government, especially for single parents.
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Primary School Deworming Project (Provides low-cost drugs to children in Kenya to eliminate parasitic worms): Randomized controlled trial shows sizable positive impact on children’s health and school attendance.