The Systematic Screening and Assessment Method: New Directions for Evaluation, Number 125 (J-B PE Single Issue (Program) Evaluation)

The rationale, application, and outcomes of the Systemic Screening and Assessment (SSA) Method, an innovative combination of existing evaluation methods, are described. The SSA Method is a cost-effective way to assist program funders, practitioners, and researchers in selecting the most promising innovations already in use and then preparing them for further, more rigorous evaluation. The focus of the issue is methodology, with abundant practical description of its application. The SSA Method is a six-step process:

1. selecting a topic or theme
2. soliciting nominations of innovations that address the theme
3. using an expert panel to screen these nominations for those with the highest plausibility of meeting criteria for promise
4. conducting evaluability assessments on the nominations that pass this screen
5. expert panel review of the evaluability assessment reports

The final step uses the information in three ways: to identify the innovations that are most promising and ready for evaluation, provide constructive feedback to the innovations that all reflect a similar program type. This issue describes use of the SSA Method in a 2-year collaborative project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the CDC Foundation, aimed at changing the prevalence of childhood obesity at the level of an entire population.

This is the 125th volume of New Directions for Evaluation, an official publication of the American Evaluation Association.

Laura C. Leviton is the coauthor of Foundations of Program Evaluation and is currently Special Advisor for Evaluation at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where for the past 10 years she has overseen more than 80 evaluations at the national, state, and local levels.

Laura Kettel Khan is currently the Senior Scientist for Policy and Partnerships in the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the primary public health agency working to prevent obesity and chronic diseases in the United States.

Nicola Dawkins is a Principal of ICF Macro where she designs and implements research and evaluation studies and led Macro's team in coordinating the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/CDC initiative Early Assessment of Programs and Policies to Prevent Childhood Obesity.