The Systematic Screening and Assessment Method: New Directions for Evaluation, Number 125

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: * selecting a topic or theme * soliciting nominations of innovations that address the theme * using an expert panel to screen these nominations for those with the highest plausibility of meeting criteria for promise * conducting evaluability assessments on the nominations that pass this screen * 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.

Table of Contents:
EDITORS' NOTES ( Laura C. Leviton, Laura Kettel Khan, Nicola Dawkins). 1. Overview and Rationale for the Systematic Screening and Assessment Method (Laura C. Leviton, Marjorie A. Gutman) This chapter presents an overview and rationale for the Systematic Screening and Assessment (SSA) Method and contrasts the method with other efforts to identify and evaluate innovations. 2. Applying the Systematic Screening and Assessment Method to Childhood Obesity Prevention (Nicola Dawkins, Holly Wethington, Laura Kettel Khan, Jo Anne Grunbaum, Leah Robin, Seraphine Pitt Barnes, David Cotton, Diane O. Dunet, Laura C. Leviton) This chapter presents detailed application of the SSA Method in an initiative to prevent childhood obesity, to identify innovations that were both promising and ready for evaluation. 3. Training and Support for Evaluability Assessment Methodology (Thearis A. Osuji, Nicola Dawkins, Starr M. Rice) This chapter focuses on the process used to identify and train 40 professionals in evaluability assessment as a component of the SSA Method, results from a training process evaluation survey, and insights from the evaluability assessment training process. 4. Early Assessment Initiative Using the Systematic Screening and Assessment Method: Three Case Studies (Seraphine Pitt Barnes, Holly Wethington, Karen Cheung) This chapter presents three case studies of evaluability assessment conducted on local-level obesity prevention programs and policies identified through the SSA Method. 5. Impact, Insights, and Implications of the Systematic Screening and Assessment Method (Laura Kettel Khan, Nicola Dawkins, Laura C. Leviton) This chapter describes how applying the SSA Method has affected the field of childhood obesity prevention, evaluation of innovations in health, and translation of practice into prevention research. 6. The SSA Method: Not Just Old Wine in a New Bottle (Debra J. Rog) This chapter offers a commentary on the similarities and differences between the SSA Method and Evaluability Assessment, and the special role that the method can have in the field of evaluation. INDEX.