The Chief Evaluation Officer leads the Chief Evaluation Office (CEO), which is responsible for coordinating, managing and implementing the Department’s evaluation research program. CEO is an independent evaluation office, located organizationally in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, and develops the Department’s annual learning agenda, annual evaluation plan, and research capacity assessment and manages the Department’s Data Analytics Unit.

Responsibilities

  • The Chief Evaluation Officer ensures that evaluation research is conducted with scientific integrity, by upholding the five key principles of rigor, relevance, transparency, independence and ethics. These principles are embodied in the Department’s Evaluation Policy.
  • The Chief Evaluation Officer, as the department’s named Evidence Official, oversees several key evidence-building activities required by the Evidence Act (Title 1), including the development and publication of three related documents – the Evidence-Building Plan, Evaluation Plan, and Capacity Assessment – as well as efforts to improve the capacity of the Department to generate, access and use evidence.

Highlighted Evidence-Building Activities

Learning Agendas and Evidence-Building Documents

CEO coordinates an annual learning agenda development process with all Departmental agencies that contribute to the Strategic Plan. Each agency develops learning agendas that roll up to the Department’s evidence documents, including the Evidence-Building Plan. These subcomponent learning agendas provide agencies with an infrastructure to customize and monitor their own learning roadmaps, in addition to contributing to the broader Departmental strategic mission. Departmental leadership and the Department’s Evidence Officials also review agency learning agendas. CEO also uses learning agenda inputs in coordinating the Department’s Capacity Assessment for Research, Evaluation, Statistics, and Analysis, and in the development of the Annual Evaluation Plan.

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Labor Research Clearinghouse

The Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research (CLEAR) is the Department’s central resource for labor-related research. CLEAR makes labor research accessible by identifying and summarizing many types of studies, including descriptive statistical analyses, implementation studies, and causal impact evaluation studies. The Chief Evaluation Office developed CLEAR in 2012, and continues to expand this resource on behalf of the Department. To date, CLEAR has summarized more than 1000 studies across 20 labor-related topics.

Data Analytics

The Chief Evaluation Office offers a variety of sophisticated data analytics resources to agencies within the Department. CEO provides this support through both external contractors and internal expertise. Internally, CEO directs the Department’s Data Analytics Unit, which is a team of applied econometricians that partners with agencies and external stakeholders to develop data-driven insights into the effectiveness of Departmental programs. CEO’s data analytics efforts help the Department reach its goals through the development of innovative data resources and academic-quality research. See more on CEO’s Data Analytics work.

Behavioral Insights

The Behavioral Interventions Program in the Chief Evaluation Office offers Department of Labor offices and agencies with support and expertise to test strategies aimed at improving the effectiveness of Departmental programs. CEO’s Behavioral Interventions Program website has more information about additional completed and current studies, as well as resources that CEO has developed, like the Practitioner’s Playbook, to help practitioners and agency staff get started with behavioral insights.