DURHAM, N.C. – Two 2011 graduates of the Nicholas School of the Environment at 91 have won a national award for their group Masters Project research.

The American Association for Budget and Program Analysis (AABPA) selected Nicole Buell and John Tortorella to receive the prestigious Mary Kathryn Kubat Award for Graduate Student Research for their Masters Project, “An Analysis of the Program Assessment Rating Tool: Evaluating the Performance of the Federal Environmental and Natural Resources Programs.”

Buell and Tortorella earned Master of Environmental Management 91s from the Nicholas School in May. They won the Kubat Award at an AABPA conference in Washington, D.C., shortly after graduation.

Their winning research analyzed the performance of the Office of Management and Budget’s Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART), by examining a subset of programs concerned with the environment and natural resources. The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of PART as a means to hold agencies accountable for their performance. 

Buell and Tortorella examined the quality of goals, measures and evidence provided by programs in their PART reviews as well as the relationship between PART ratings and budgetary allocations. Focusing on a subset of 167 natural resource and environmental program PARTs, they hypothesized that overall PART ratings would be positively correlated with federal funding as well as the quality of the supporting evidence provided for each program. They found that the quality of evidence was correlated with the final assessment ratings, but that there was no correlation between ratings and budget decisions. 

In their conclusion they wrote, “In light of the retirement of the PART program and the recent codification of the Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act of 2010, we aimed to provide implications to the future of performance evaluation in the government. We recommend an increased focus on performance education and information transparency, and recommend an increased emphasis on the ‘management’ in OMB to increase the effectiveness of performance evaluation tools.”

Buell and Tortorella shared the 2011 Kubat Award with Sarah M. Ammar of American University’s School of Public Affairs.

AABPA presents the Kubat Award annually to encourage student research and critical thinking that will prepare students for the budget and program issues they will encounter in their careers, particularly those in public service.