“What works” sites that focus on well-conducted randomized controlled trials in social policy:
- The Best Evidence Encyclopedia, established by the Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University, presents reliable, unbiased information on high-quality evaluations of educational programs.
- Blueprints for Violence Prevention at the University of Colorado at Boulder is a national violence prevention initiative to identify programs that are effective in reducing adolescent violent crime, aggression, delinquency, and substance abuse.
- The International Campbell Collaboration offers a registry of systematic reviews of evidence on the effects of interventions in the social, behavioral, and educational arenas
- The Poverty Action Lab at MIT works with non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and others to rigorously evaluate anti-poverty programs in the developing world, and disseminate the results of these studies.
- The What Works Clearinghouse established by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences to provide educators, policymakers, and the public with a central, independent, and trusted source of scientific evidence of what works in education.
Other helpful websites:
- Abt Associates conducts research, including randomized controlled trials in social, economic, health and international development policy.
- Child Trends provides detailed summaries of programs that research indicates are effective in improving outcomes for children and youth.
- Evidence-Based Management established by Stanford professors Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton to provide information on evidence-based management, examples of evidence-based research, and links to other information about evidence-based movements in other areas such as medicine and education.
- The Community Guide established by the Department of HHS to provide systematic reviews of community, population, and health care system strategies to address a variety of public health and health promotion issues.
- Get Out the Vote at Yale University’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies, provides the findings from randomized controlled trials studying the effects of voter mobilization.
- Government Social Research a United Kingdom government site that provides social researchers with career information, news, training, events, and the latest methodological developments.
- Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. conducts research, including randomized controlled trials, in health care, welfare, education, employment, nutrition, and early childhood policy.
- MDRC conducts education and social policy research, including randomized controlled trials, to identify what works to improve programs and policies that affect the poor.
- The Promising Practices Network highlights programs and practices that research indicates are effective in improving outcomes for children, youth, and families.
- SRDC develops, field tests, and rigorously evaluates social programs, particularly those serving the disadvantaged.