For decades, evaluators have heard the mantra: randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard. The phrase is meant to signal rigor, credibility, and objectivity. In medicine, RCTs revolutionized how we test drugs and treatments. In social impact, they promised to do the same: offer certainty about what works.
Usefulness as the Gold Standard in Social…
For decades, evaluators have heard the mantra: randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard. The phrase is meant to signal rigor, credibility, and objectivity. In medicine, RCTs revolutionized how we test drugs and treatments. In social impact, they promised to do the same: offer certainty about what works.