Once primarily used in medical clinical trials, random assignment experimentation is now accepted among social scientists across a broad range of disciplines. The technique has been used in social experiments to evaluate a variety of programs, from microfinance and welfare reform to housing vouchers and teaching methods. How did randomized experiments move beyond medicine and into the social sciences, and can they be used effectively to evaluate complex social problems? Fighting for Reliable Evidence provides an absorbing historical account of the characters and controversies that have propelled the wider use of random assignment in social policy research over the past forty years.
Tables and figures -- About the authors -- Preface -- Acknowledgements and dedication -- Chapter 1. Introduction: the issue, the method, and the story in brief -- Chapter 2. They said it couldn't be done: the national supported work demonstration -- Chapter 3. Bridge to the 1980s: Implementing random assignment in work incentive program offices and testing a job guarantee -- Chapter 4. Inventing a new paradigm: the states as laboratories -- Chapter 5. The Reagan revolution and research capacity within the Department of Health and Human Services: from near destruction to new growth -- Chapter 6. The work/welfare demonstration: lessons about programs, research, and dissemination -- Chapter 7. Waiver evaluations: how random assignment evaluation came to be the standard for approval -- Chapter 8. Expanding the agenda: the role of basic education -- Chapter 9. The JOBS evaluation: cumulative evidence on basic education versus work first -- Chapter 10. Expanding the agenda II: three experiments to make work pay -- Chapter 11. The end of our story: welfare reform recedes from the spotlight of random assignment program evaluation -- Chapter 12. Conclusion and lessons -- Coda. Random assignment takes center stage -- Appendix -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Note on sources -- References -- Index