Evaluating Policies and Programs with Secondary Data

The Role of Secondary Data in Program Evaluation

Author’s Name Surname

Department of X, Name of Institution

Course number: Course Title

Instructor’s Name Surname

Month Day, Year

There are quite limited resources available for research and evaluation in non-profit and public sectors. Among these limited resources are funds, time, and knowledge. Due to these limitations it becomes difficult to create primary data for research and hence one is forced to carry out research and evaluation with secondary data. Secondary data is data previously collected by another researcher at a different time.

Researchers can obtain secondary data from quantitative and qualitative research strands. There are different types of secondary data that can be used in the evaluation of the program, policy or problem. Sources of secondary data from a quantitative research strand include external sources such as published sources. Public agencies gather data from crime rates, vital statistics, governmental budgets, census…