From 2001-2015, the Coalition worked closely with the Bush and Obama administrations and Congress to secure enactment of "tiered evidence" initiatives, described by science journalist Helen Pearson as "a milestone in the history of evidence-based policy" (Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works, Princeton University Press 2026, see excerpt). These initiatives include the Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research program (EIR, funded at $235 million in FY 2026), HHS’s Evidence-Based Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV, funded at $650 million in FY 2026), and others described on the Coalition’s archived website.

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An external review, based on confidential interviews with senior federal officials, found that the Coalition had a major policy impact: “The Coalition was given credit by multiple interviewees for the Office of Management and Budget’s establishment of a requirement that many discretionary domestic programs be subject to rigorous evaluation, and for … legislation carrying similar requirements. As one interviewee stated, ‘The Coalition played a central role in securing [the Obama] Administration’s commitment to high standards of evidence.’ And another interviewee stated, ‘The push for strong evidence would not have happened as quickly and widely and with so relatively little controversy without the Coalition.’”

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