{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.0248565965583174, 'fraction_numerical': 0.008126195028680689, 'mean_word_length': 5.420245398773006, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 1, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Problems in evaluating costs and benefits of social programs.

The wave of domestic social legislation of the 1960s and early 1970s that led to community action programs, measures for reducing racial segregation and sex discrimination, compensatory education, manpower training, and public health initiatives also pushed federal "human services" expenditures to a FY 1980 level of $336.2 billion.' The same phenomenon was responsible for the creation of the profession of program evaluation. Many legislators favor this development, for it offers the possibility of making more rational decisions about social welfare policies and more objective and efficient allocations of public expenditures. On the program management side, the current climate of retrenchment gives a new and additional significance to evaluation. Some program managers now see it as a means of prioritizing spending reductions and protecting the best programs from unwise funding cuts and consolidation into block grants. The program evaluation discipline, both in government agencies and in the consulting firms performing evaluation work under government contract, developed in a fashion similar to that of operations research during World War II. Like "operations research" in its formative years, "program evaluation" is eclectic, empirical, and welcomes to its ranks researchers of widely varying perspectives and formal training. Two of the most popular approaches to studying program impact have been adaptations of the pre-treatment vs. post-treatment and / or treatment-versus-control studies of the behavioral scientist and the cost-benefit analyses of the economist.2 In the "pre-post" study, preprogram data and post-program data are gathered on relevant variables and compared. In the cost-benefit study, program costs and dollar value of program benefits are compared. Although some fruitful research has been produced, severe "real-world" obstacles have also been encountered. The remainder of this article will discuss some of these obstacles to effective program evaluation, and ways of overcoming them.