Resource Details
How to Evaluate Choice and Promise Neighborhoods
Author: Robin E. Smith | Year of Publication: 2011
Living in concentrated poverty stifles the life chances of adults and children. Efforts to transform neighborhoods of extreme poverty into places of opportunity must grapple with disadvantages, including distressed housing, failing schools, joblessness, poor health, and violence. Two federal initiatives seeking to address neighborhood deficiencies simultaneously are the U.S. Department of Education's Promise Neighborhoods effort and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Choice Neighborhoods program. Evaluating these efforts presents many methodological challenges. This brief provides a framework for designing evaluations of Choice and Promise Neighborhoods, including key research questions, different research approaches, and components of an evaluation strategy.