Resource Brief: Best Practices for Developing a Final Report for a Reentry Program Evaluation

Producing a research report is critical for documenting the impacts and operations of a reentry program. A constructive report needs to communicate important program information to a wide variety of audiences, including research experts, program practitioners, and current and potential funders. A comprehensive research report should include most or all of the following sections: 

• Front matter: Includes items such as the title page and the table of contents, which delineates the report structure 
• Executive summary: Summarizes the important elements of the report and provides key details about the program that was evaluated, its findings, and high-level implications for those who may not read the report in its entirety 
• Introduction: Provides important foundational information, including the need for the particular reentry program that was delivered, as well as an overview of the program and evaluation 
• Methodology: Establishes the scientific credibility of the report and includes the evaluation goals and objectives, evaluation components and purpose (process, outcome, cost studies), evaluation framework, data sources, data collection methods, key constructs, and analytic approaches used  
• Findings: Varies depending on the type of evaluation conducted; rigorous evaluations typically include a process evaluation (whether the program is functioning as intended), an impact evaluation (whether the program is having the intended outcomes), and a cost study (whether the program is cost-effective)  
• Conclusion and implications: Summarizes the entire report, interprets the findings from each evaluation component, notes the limitations, and makes recommendations 

This Evaluation and Sustainability Training and Technical Assistance (ES TTA) brief from RTI International and the Center for Justice Innovation (formerly the Center for Court Innovation) reviews the content needed to have a comprehensive and effective evaluation research report that can be used to communicate program successes to all your audiences, including current and potential funders. 

View the brief (PDF)