Burial Program Evaluation
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
The mission of the VA Burial Program is to honor veterans with a final resting place and lasting memorials that commemorate their service to our nation. The program is operated jointly by the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) and the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA). In accordance with the Government Performance Results Act (GPRA, 1993), the VA has established a performance measurement program, which establishes strategic performance targets, gathers data to measure performance on an annual basis (e.g., through an annual survey and administrative data collection), and sets priorities for the future based on the results of the program evaluation. ICF is conducting a formal impact evaluation of the VA Burial Program to determine whether the program is achieving its expected outcomes and to identify the program’s impact on veterans and their family members in terms of satisfaction with benefits and services, choice of burial in a national versus a private cemetery, and adequacy of information provided on benefits. The ICF team is working closely with the VA to determine the program’s short-term, intermediate, and long-term impacts on the veteran community.
Performance Measurement On-Line Tool (PM-OTOOL)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau
In order to report performance data for five Children’s Bureau discretionary grant programs (Abandoned Infants Assistance, Adoption Opportunities, Child Abuse and Prevention Treatment Act Research and Demonstration Projects, Child Welfare Training, and Infant Adoption Awareness Training), ICF developed the Performance Measurement On-Line Tool (PM-OTOOL), a Web-based data collection and reporting system, under the Child Welfare Information Gateway contract. Using the PM-OTOOL, grantees select performance measures (outputs and outcomes), then submit data on these measures at the end of each reporting period. Federal staff and grantees can create reports that reflect and analyze individual grantee data or aggregated data for a program for a particular reporting period or across multiple reporting periods. Grantees also can upload semi-annual and final reports to PM-OTOOL. ICF provides training and technical assistance to the Children’s Bureau and its grantees about performance measurement and how to use PM-OTOOL.
Title III and Title V Performance Measurement System
U.S. Department of Education, Institutional Development and Undergraduate Education Service (IDUES)
Agencies and organizations increasingly rely on performance measurement strategies to organize, manage, and evaluate programs. For this multiyear project, ICF’s education research experts developed a Web-based performance measurement system for the Title III and Title V programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education. Title III and Title V programs make available financial support to colleges and universities that serve substantial proportions of minority and low-income students. Working with the Department of Education's IDUES directors, IDUES program staff, and consultants, ICF designed and implemented a fully Web-based annual performance measurement (APR) system for Title III and Title V programs. This very successful system provides information for program monitoring, performance measurement, and communication about the IDUES program to Congress and other stakeholders. Current phases of the project include funding for three separate tasks: continuation of the APR system for the data collection and reporting cycle, analysis and reporting of recently collected data, and development and initiation of the first Web-based final performance report, to be completed electronically by grantees in the last year of their funding cycle. |
