Applied Research & Evaluation
Research designed for use
CBSI works with partners to study meaningful questions in the settings where people learn, work, receive services, and participate in community life. Our goal is not only to understand what happens, but to identify what helps an approach work, for whom, under which conditions, and what is needed to improve or sustain it.
Connect Outcomes With Implementation and Context
Ask both what changed and what helped the work take hold
A program may show promising outcomes but still be difficult to use consistently. CBSI examines results together with the conditions surrounding them, including readiness, training, coaching, leadership, workflow, workforce capacity, data use, community experience, implementation quality, and available resources.
Looking at outcomes and implementation together helps partners understand not only whether change occurred, but how it occurred, how people experienced the work, what may explain differences across settings or groups, and what may support the next step.
Questions This Work Can Help Address
See the questions we help answer
- What changed, for whom, and in which settings or conditions?
- How consistently, accessibly, and equitably was the approach put into use?
- Which organizational, workforce, leadership, workflow, or community conditions helped or hindered implementation?
- How did participants, practitioners, partners, or communities experience the program or process?
- Which elements should be refined, sustained, discontinued, or studied further?
- What evidence, safeguards, implementation supports, and local capacity would be needed before extending the work?
Areas of Applied Inquiry
See all areas of applied inquiry
- Behavior, learning, communication, participation, and quality of life.
- General and special education, school climate, instruction, inclusion, and student support.
- Behavioral health, mental health, coordinated care, prevention, and community well-being.
- Workforce preparation, supervision, performance, mentoring, leadership, and organizational conditions.
- Autism, developmental disabilities, and co-occurring behavioral or mental health needs.
- Employment, transition, healthcare, public safety, family, and community systems.
- Implementation readiness, quality, adaptation, fidelity, sustainability, and responsible expansion.
Research and Evaluation Approaches
Methods are selected to fit the question, setting, people, and decisions involved
See our methods and approaches
- Community-informed question development and collaborative study design.
- Program evaluation and continuous-improvement studies.
- Needs assessments, census surveys, gap analyses, and environmental scans.
- Qualitative, quantitative, mixed-method, and implementation studies.
- Measure selection, adaptation, development, and field testing when appropriate, together with data collection, management, analysis, interpretation, and visualization.
- Longitudinal datasets and follow-up when the design and infrastructure support it.
- Collaborative or demonstration sites that examine implementation in authentic settings and translate findings into reports, summaries, training, tools, guidance, and implementation supports.
Evaluation as Learning
Use evidence to strengthen the work
CBSI approaches evaluation as a practical learning process. Partners clarify meaningful questions and indicators, identify data that can be collected responsibly, review findings together, and use what is learned to refine programs, supports, workplace practices, or system decisions. Results may also inform reports, summaries, scholarly products, policy conversations, resources, or responsible expansion, with claims kept proportional to the methods, evidence, context, and limitations.
Evaluation Across the Life of a Program
Begin before launch, during implementation, or after a program is established
| Phase | What It Involves |
|---|---|
| Understand the Need | Clarify priorities, strengths, gaps, baseline information, intended benefit, and people affected. |
| Define Meaningful Indicators | Identify outcomes, implementation conditions, experience, access, and information needed for decisions. |
| Gather and Interpret Information | Use feasible methods and review results in context, including data quality, missing perspectives, and limitations. |
| Use What Is Learned | Refine the program or supports, communicate findings, strengthen implementation, and identify the next question. |
Connection to HANDS
A research-to-practice foundation
HANDS has spent more than two decades developing, studying, refining, and implementing evidence-based practices with schools, agencies, healthcare partners, families, professionals, and communities. Its research continues within established autism- and disability-focused areas, while CBSI applies the same learning orientation to broader behavioral, educational, workforce, organizational, and cross-system questions.