Legislative history and evaluation

Legislative histories can be done with those evaluative studies which are based on programs which have a history in the legislature. ESEA Title I, Title IV, and the Title I Technical Assistance Centers are examples of programs which have their direct source in federal legislation. The evaluator could ask whether the intent (aims and objectives) of a program is the same as the intent of the legislation or could ask whether the outcomes of a program were the same as those intended by the legislature. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the reader to the doing of legislative history in an evaluation study. The paper introduces the reader to five major sources for legislative history. The paper then discusses seven acceptable sources of information. Following this is a five-step guide to doing a legislative history.