Show Me the Evidence ─ Obama's Fight for Rigor and Results in Social Policy

This book tells the story of how the Obama administration planned and enacted several initiatives to fund social programs based on rigorous evidence of success and thereby created a fundamental change in the role of evidence in federal policymaking.

Using interviews with the major players from the White House, the Office of Management and Budget, federal agencies, Congress, and the child advocacy community, the authors detail the development and implementation of six evidence-based social policy initiatives by the Obama administration.

The initiatives range widely over fundamental issues in the nation's social policy including preschool and K-12 education, teen pregnancy, employment and training, health, and community-based programs. These initiatives constitute a revolution in the use of social science evidence to guide federal policymaking and the operation of federal grant programs.

A fascinating story for everyone interested in politics and policy, this book also provides a blueprint for policymakers worldwide who are interested in expanding the use of evidence in policy.

Ron Haskins is the codirector of the Center on Children and Families, a senior fellow at Brookings, and a senior consultant at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. A former adviser to the president for welfare policy, he spent fourteen years on the staff of the House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee, including six years as the Republican subcommittee staff director. He is the author of Work over Welfare: The Inside Story of the 1996 Welfare Reform Law (Brookings, 2006) and coauthor, with Isabel Sawhill, of Creating an Opportunity Society (Brookings, 2009). Greg Margolis is a research analyst in the Center on Children and Families at Brookings.