Federal Evaluation Strategy for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program

In 2010, a new Teenage Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program was established within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to address the high rates of teenage pregnancy in the United States. This two-tier program focuses on replicating evidence-based program models and testing innovative approaches to teenage pregnancy prevention.

This presentation will describe the multi-level evaluation strategy for the HHS TPP Program, which includes a combination of rigorous grantee-level evaluation and federal-level evaluation studies. The evaluation activities are designed to answer the key question: What is the effectiveness of current TPP programs? More specifically, the evaluations are designed to determine:

• What happens when we replicate evidence-based programs? • Are there innovative or untested programs that are effective? • What can we learn for the next time we want to replicate these programs?

All evaluations are designed to meet the evidence standards of the HHS Evidence Review. This presentation will discuss the requirements for the rigorous grantee-level evaluations as well as the evaluation-focused technical assistance and support available for grantees. The presentation will also describe the three complementary federal evaluation studies: one focuses on evaluating replications of evidence-based program models; one focuses on evaluating innovative and untested models; and one focuses on evaluating community-wide, multi-component approaches to preventing teen pregnancy. Presenters will explain the research questions, evaluation designs, methodologies, and program models selected for each of the federal evaluation studies.