Program Monitoring and Evaluation: Tools for Measuring the Performance of Federal Policy Agencies

Date: May 16, 2011
Location: College Park, MD

Donald Malcolm Smith, a doctoral candidate in the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore, presented his dissertation, “Program Monitoring and Evaluation: Tools for Measuring the Performance of Federal Policy Agencies” at an Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal) Brown Bag on Wednesday, May 4.

Mr. Smith identified the challenges in measuring the performance of policy agencies, and assessed related evaluation-based solutions within the context of Government Performance Results Act (GRPA) of 1993, as amended. He specifically pointed out that the GRPA’s structure and the motivations of executive leadership, like influences on bureaucratic decision making, presented challenges in measuring performance on the federal level. After examining the experiences of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), he concluded that the department was able to confront challenges by using logic modeling that allows executive leadership to assemble annually and meet political needs and regulatory requirements.