The
Peter H. Rossi Award
for
Contributions to the Theory or Practice
of Program Evaluation
About the Award
The Peter H. Rossi Award honors the lifetime
achievements of Peter Rossi by recognizing important contributions to the theory
or practice 
of
program evaluation. The award may be for a recent paper or publication or for
an entire body of work. The awardee receives a plaque and recognition at the
annual Fall Research Conference of the Association for Public Policy and Management
(APPAM), reimbursement for travel expenses to the meeting, and a cash award
in the amount of $1,000.
The APPAM Policy Council approved this award on April 8, 2005.
Funding for the award comes from an endowment managed by the University System
of Maryland Foundation, Inc. This endowment is accepting donations (click here
for more information).
About Peter H. Rossi
(from the New York Times)
Peter H. Rossi, a prominent sociologist best known for documenting
the changing face of American homelessness in the 1980s, died on October 7,
2006, at his home in Amherst, Massachusettes. He was eighty-four. Professor
Rossi died of natural causes, his family said. At his death, Professor Rossi
was Stuart A. Rice professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, where he had taught for many years. He was also director emeritus of
the Social and Demographic Research Inst
itute
at the university.
Professor Rossi’s most famous book was Down and
Out in America: The Origins of Homelessness (University of Chicago, 1989).
In it, he chronicled the shift in the nation’s homeless population from
the older white male denizens of post-World War II skid rows to a younger, larger
group that included many more women, children, and minorities. For the book,
Professor Rossi and a team of researchers took to the streets of Chicago in
1985 and 1986 in one of the first systematic efforts to count the homeless.
Their work suggested that the national homeless population was far lower than
thought—300,000 to 500,000 people instead of the two million to three
million often cited. The findings drew criticism from many advocates for the
homeless.
His other research also centered on the effectiveness of social
programs in several areas, among them poverty, hunger and prison reform. Although
he personally favored social policies that helped the disenfranchised, his work
sought to determine objectively whether such programs actually worked. As a
result, it seemed to appeal equally to conservatives (who invoked it to highlight
the failure of particular programs) and to liberals (who invoked it to argue
for strengthening the same programs). Professor Rossi’s other books include
The Education of Catholic Americans (Aldine Publishing, 1966), with
Andrew M. Greeley; Armed and Considered Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and
Their Firearms (Aldine de Gruyter, 1986), with James D. Wright; and Of
Human Bonding: Parent-Child Relations Across the Life Course (Aldine de
Gruyter, 1990), written with his wife, Alice S. Rossi, a sociologist who was
a founder of the National Organization for Women.
Peter Henry Rossi was born on December 27, 1921, in Queens.
He earned a bachelor’s in sociology from the City College of New York
in 1943 and, after Army service in World War II, a doctorate in sociology from
Columbia in 1951. After teaching at Harvard, Professor Rossi joined the faculty
at the University of Chicago, where he also directed the National Opinion Research
Center. He later taught at Johns Hopkins and joined the University of Massachusetts
in 1974. He retired in 1992.
Professor Rossi’s first marriage ended in divorce. He
married Alice Schaerr in 1951. Besides his wife, the Harriet Martineau professor
emerita of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, surviving
are their three children, Kristin, of Keene, New Hampshire; Nina Bander of Turners
Falls, Massachussettes; and Peter, an economist at the University of Chicago;
and six grandchildren.
-Margalit Fox, October 13, 2006
Prior Recipients of the Rossi Award
- 2007: Grover J. (Russ) Whitehurst, Institute
- of Education Sciences
2006: Rob Hollister, Swarthmore
College
2005: Frederick Mosteller,
Harvard University
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How to Contribute to the Peter H. Rossi Award
Fund
Donations in honor of Peter Rossi may be made to the Peter
H. Rossi Award Fund via check or credit card payment. The Peter H. Rossi Award
Fund is housed at the University System of Maryland Foundation, Inc., a qualified
501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions to the award fund are tax-deductible
to the fullest extent of the law.
To Pay by Check
Please make the check payable to the University System of Maryland Foundation,
Inc., and send it to:
University System of Maryland Foundation, Inc.
Attn: Randy Possehl
3300 Metzerott Road
Adelphi, MD 20783
Please indicate the gift is for the Peter H. Rossi Award Fund.
To Pay by Credit Card
Please contact Randy Possehl (rpossehl@usmd.edu; 301.445.2710)
at the University System of Maryland Foundation and provide the following information:
-Name and address of cardholder
-Card number
-Expiration date
-Dollar amount of contribution
Please indicate the gift is for the Peter H. Rossi Award Fund.
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Contributions
(January 2004–May 2008)
Nominations may be based on a recent paper or publication,
or an entire body of work. The selection committee holds the right to, from
time to time, establish time limits for what may be considered. When appropriate,
joint awards will be made for coauthored works or joint products.
The paper, publication, or body of work may involve any aspect of planning,
conducting, or analyzing evaluations of social programs and may be directed
to lay or professional audiences. The work should reflect the importance of
precision and objectivity in setting the evaluation framework, design, execution,
and reporting, as well as the value of evidence-based presentation or translation
for varied audiences. Illustrative examples include works on the state of evaluation
or knowledge in a particular substantive field, new approaches to program evaluation,
and program evaluation and its role in the political decision making process.
The selection committee may decide not to make an award in any particular year.
Nominations may be made by
any individual or organization. (Individuals may nominate their own work.) The
letter of nomination (with the nominee’s current address, email address,
and phone number) should detail the contributions made by the work to the field
of evaluation, and should include the paper or relevant parts of the body of
work. Nominations should be sent via e-mail to:
The 2007 committee was chaired
by Douglas Besharov and the four immediate past presidents of APPAM.
All nominating materials
for 2008 must be received by Tuesday, July 8, 2008.
