title: Insuring the integrity and validity of social work interventions: the case of the subsidized guardianship waiver experiments.
abstract: The near loss of the ability to conduct randomized controlled trials in the Title IV-E waiver demonstrations makes the negotiation of a ceasefire urgent in the "causal wars." Results-oriented accountability is a conceptual framework for managing the micro-macro tensions that arise in social work practice and research. This article uses subsidized guardianship experiments to illustrate the results-oriented accountability process by which innovation is aggregated from the micro level through formative implementation and evaluation into a usable, stable intervention that can be rigorously tested through summative implementation and evaluation at the macro level, and if validated, generalized to the micro level through translative implementation and evaluation.
authors.affiliation: a School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , Chapel Hill , North Carolina , USA.
authors.forename: Mark F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Testa
authors.forename: Kevin R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D032984:Ethics, Research; D005581:Foster Home Care; D006801:Humans; D007872:Legal Guardians; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000941:ethics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards*; D012947:Social Work / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards