Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 197
A
Collaborative Contracting Strategy
this report, the panel has recommended rigorous evaluation strategies
for assessing the projects of community-based organizations (CBOs) and
counseling and testing sites. In making these recommendations, we have
also noted that some projects may be unable or unwilling to participate
in evaluation research because they do not have the funding, time, or
appropnately trained personnel to undertake the necessary tasks. In this
appendix, the pane] lays out a possible strategy that would ensure projects
of the necessary resources to conduct evaluation research and that would
also lead to separate but mutually informing communities of evaluation
experts.
The proposed tactic for evaluating projects located in CBOs and In
counseling and testing sites is to use a contract bidding procedure rather
than the request-for-proposal process. The contract to be bid on would
describe Me following:
.
demographic characteristics of the target population;
· the scope of the program;
· endpoint objectives behavioral, psychological, or biologi-
c~;
· program content objectives;
· policy objectives;
· evaluation objectives for formative and process evaluations
and for evaluating whether the project makes a difference
and what works better; and
· evaluation methods.
197
OCR for page 198
198 ~ APPENDIX A
A prospective contractor, in collaboration with a competent evaluation
group, would explain in detail its approach to designing a program to
meet the contract requirements. The prospective contractor would bid on
the contract, relating the bid to program design and to the contract re-
quirement. The evaluation procedure, responsibilities, and budget would
be predetermined and included as a contract requirement. The evaluation
processes, including random assignment, monitoring, and data collection
and analyses, would be dictated primarily by the scope of the program
and by whether outcomes are to be assessed internally (as the responsi-
bility of the contractor) or externally (as the responsibility of an outside
evaluator to analyze multiple CBO contractors).
The contracting option also engenders further choices. Among these
is deciding whether to develop separate contractual arrangements with
each project that agrees to evaluation or to develop a single large con-
tract to cover the evaluation of a sample of sites. Developing separate
contractual arrangements may involve an independent evaluation team
submitting evaluation proposals that show how the CBO would colIabo-
rate with such a team and how the evaluation would be calTied out. The
independence of the evaluation team is justified on grounds of credibil-
ity and scientific integrity; however, the collaboration with the CBO is
essential.
For CDC to contract separately with six to eight CBO-evaluator
groups would be feasible but managerially burdensome. Nevertheless,
the strategy arguably is sensible on scientific grounds. In effect, over tile
long run the approach builds separate but mutually ~nforTning communi-
ties of experts. The current dependence of AIDS research on only a few
universities and research institutes is often sound strategy for massive
evaluation but does little to develop local capacity for routinely and Ic-
cally generated high-quality evaluation. Local evaluative capacity avoids
dependence on a single pnncipal investigator who makes decisions about
the evaluation of a range of complex projects. Campbell (1987:402)
argues that splitting large studies into two or more parallel studies is
desirable on grounds that it increases the "size and autonomy of a mutu-
ally monitoring scientific community." The latter is essential in building
scientific understanding in prevention program research and evaluation.
Contracting with one evaluation group that collaborates with, per-
haps, six to eight sites is also feasible, to judge from work by Hubbard
and colleagues (1988), among others. This approach is managerially less
burdensome than contracting independently with evaluator-project com-
binations, but has the disadvantages of being vulnerable to the will of a
single decision maker (i.e., the principal investigator) and of not building
OCR for page 199
CONTRACTING 199
lock expense ~ me design, 1mplemen~1ion, Id Isis of ebb wows
-~ Has ~
REFERENCES
C a, D. (1987) Guldel~es For monhodug me sciendOc commence of p~venOve
~~~emion Joseph camp: ~ exercise in me stole of scientific tidily.
^~: In, I, ~~ &389~30.
H~b~, R. L., Dresden, ha. E., C~=gh, E., Robe, J. ha, ad Gi=-, H. M.
(1988) Role of ~g-~use =~eD1 ~ limiting me saw of IDS. Revi
Nachos D~ 10:377-384.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
testing sites
