Best Practices

The concept of best practices captures the hope that systematic comparative evaluation of different programs, or program components, will yield conclusions about which are most effective and therefore “best.” Once identified, information about such best practices would be disseminated so that others could adopt them. Philanthropic foundations and government agencies have been especially interested in supporting identification and dissemination of best practices.

Although the idea is attractive, substantial difficulties exist in identifying a practice as “best.” Comparisons can be difficult when programs have different [Page 32]goals, serve populations with varying degrees of need, and include different elements in implementation. Thus, it is important to be quite specific in asserting a “best practice”: best for whom, under what conditions, for what purposes, in what context, with what level of evidence, using what criteria, and compared to what alternatives?

The issue of generalizability is at the heart of the concept of best practices. Comparative evaluations have shown that what works effectively in one setting may not transfer to new settings. A program that works on a small scale may not work as well when attempted on a large scale. From a systems point of view, something that works effectively in one system may not work at all in a different system. Suppose automobile engineers identified the best fuel injection system, the best transmission, the best engine cooling system, and so on. Now suppose, as is likely, that these best components come from different car models (Lexus, Audi, Mercedes, etc.). Once all the “best” components from different cars were brought together, it would not be possible to assemble them into a working car. The components are not interchangeable. Moreover, it has proven especially challenging in evaluations to isolate the effective components of complex programs to determine best practices. Even when an intervention works effectively in one context at one point in time, the question of the temporal validity of “best practices” concerns generalizability to the same local population or in the same setting at later points in time.

Having a technique labeled a best practice is such a powerful magnet for support and attention that the idea has been politicized, with ideological adherents of some unsubstantiated or poorly evaluated practices asserting that a practice is best because it conforms to a group's value preferences. In general, it has proven easier to identify practices that are ineffective than to identify practices that work in different settings, with different staff or target populations. Indeed, so many things are problematic about the notion that a particular practice is “best” that many evaluators prefer more modest and confirmable phrases, such as “evidence-based practices” (meaning that the practice has been subjected to at least some significant empirical validation), “promising practices” (meaning that the practice has been shown to work in some settings and is worth experimentation and evaluation in other settings), “better practices” (suggesting that more effective practices have been separated from those less effective without asserting that the more effective is also best), or simply “effective practices” (meaning that there is at least credible evidence of effectiveness).

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