National Evaluation Process and Framework Clause Samples

National Evaluation Process and Framework. The Battelle team developed a National Evaluation Framework (NEF) to provide a foundation for evaluation of the UPA/CRD sites. The NEF is based on the 4Ts congestion reduction strategies and the questions that the U.S. DOT seeks to answer through the evaluation. The NEF is essential because it defines the questions, analyses, measures of effectiveness, and associated data collection for the entire UPA/CRD evaluation. As illustrated in Figure 3-2, the framework is a key driver of the site-specific evaluation plans and test plans and will serve as a touchstone throughout the project to ensure that national evaluation objectives are being supported through the site-specific activities. The evaluation of each UPA/CRD site will involve several steps. With the exception of Miami, where the national evaluation team is serving in a limited role of review and support to the local partners, the national evaluation team will work closely with the local partners to perform the following activities and provide the following products:  a site-specific strategy guided by the NEF;  a site-specific evaluation plan that describes the strategy and provides a high-level view of all the test plans needed, the roles and responsibilities, and the schedule;  multiple site-specific test plans that provide complete details on how the data collection and analysis activity will be implemented;  collection of one year of pre-deployment and one year of post-deployment data;  analysis of the collected data; and  site-specific evaluation reports and a National Evaluation Findings Report. The NEF provides guidance to the local sites in designing and deploying their projects, such as by identifying the need to build in data collection mechanisms if such infrastructure does not already exist. To measure the impact of the congestion strategies, it is essential to collect both the “before” and “after” data for many of the measures of effectiveness identified in the NEF. Also important is establishing as many common measures as possible that can be used at all of the sites to enable comparison of findings across the sites. For example, a core set of standardized questions and response categories for traveler surveys will be prepared. Questions may need to be tailored or added to reflect the specific congestion strategies and local context for each site, such as road names or transit lines, but striving for comparability among sites will be a goal of the evaluation. A traditional “before ...