Leveraging integrated data for program evaluation: Recommendations from the field

This article, co-authored by past and present members of the AISP team, utilizes survey data and key informant interviews, as well as AISP’s 12+ years of experience in the field, to describe how cross-sector administrative data from IDS can be used for program evaluation. Published in Evaluation and Program Planning, the piece offers actionable recommendations for evaluators, real-world examples of evaluations that relied on IDS, and a list of sites in the U.S. that have public processes that evaluators can use to submit data requests. While there are challenges associated with leveraging linked data for program evaluation, we argue that IDS mitigate these barriers by creating sustainable pathways for collaboration and evidence-building across systems.