ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Building City-Level Data Capacity

Bloomberg Cities Network (Oliver Wise)

A growing number of city-level data teams are taking a nontraditional approach by starting with the problem, demonstrating quick results, and developing lasting capacity along the way, rather than starting with the traditional approach of creating a grand plan to standardize data and invest in central data stores.

Resource of the Week:  Building the National Data Ecosystem

USAFacts.org and CODE

This paper lays out a vision for the future data ecosystem that provides answers to pressing public questions via a shared source of knowledge and performance information that underlies public discourse. Drafting this paper engaged 154 stakeholders from all segments of society and serves as a starting point for the work ahead.

Resource of the Week:  Evidence Act One-Stop Hub

Data Foundation

Federal agencies are required by law to publicly post their plans for collecting evidence on how well their programs work. The Office of Management and Budget prior to the Trump Administration had created a useful one-stop for all agency plans and reports. The Data Foundation has re-created an Evidence Act Hub to provide easy access to these documents. It is also developing an AI-powered search tool to explore themes across agencies’ plans and policies.

WEBINAR: Implications of the President’s Management Agenda for States and Localities (Tues., June 9, 1 p.m. Eastern)

Center for Accountability & Performance

Attendee takeaways will begin with an overview of the President’s Management Agenda, its impact on grants and funding flows to states and localities and what the shifts in accountability for performance will have on their priority-setting and operations. Jed Herrmann, a former US Treasury and OMB official familiar with federal-state-local interactions, will be the discussant.

Resource of the Week:  Investing for Impact: A Decision-Making Tool

Annie E. Casey Foundation

Impact investing requires balancing financial returns with meaningful outcomes for children, families and communities. This report introduces a decision-making tool to help funders assess and compare investment opportunities with clarity and consistency.

Evidence and Policymaking: An Organizational Approach

Public Administration Review (Johan Christensen)

Evidence-informed policy-making not only depends on the rigor and relevance of the research, science communication or features of policy-makers. It also depends on how expertise arrangements in public organizations are organized.

From Receipts to Results: Denver Redesigns Homeless Shelter Contracts

Substack/Department of What Works

By tying payments to performance, the city is reducing administrative burden, improving data and helping shelter providers focus on moving people toward housing.

UK Introduces Pay for Performance for Top Civil Servants

Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office

For the first time ever, the UK Government has introduced performance-based pay progression for the Senior Civil Servants – with those who deliver for the public at an exceptional level being rewarded with salary increases. “Reward the doers, not the talkers.”

Seeking Legitimacy Through Accountability

Public Administration Review

Institution-based accountability, rooted in rational-legal authority and procedural regularity, is widely seen as the gold standard for ensuring legitimacy. However, this research experiment challenges the dominant view that emphasizes rational-legal authority as the main source of legitimacy among Chinese civil servants.

How San Diego Links Spending to Results

Substack/Department of What Works

An independent evaluation office is connecting rigorous evaluation to the policy and budget decisions that shape the lives of 3.3 million San Diegans.

Evidence for the Future?

Policy and Society Journal

Can strategic foresight become a source of evidence for policymaking? The authors develop a conceptual framework that “can meaningfully complement other forms of evidence within a broader, pluralistic knowledge ecosystem.”

50 Years of Evaluation: Imagining a Framework for Usability

New Directions for Evaluation Journal (Nick Hart)

National evaluation policy in the United States has substantially improved over the past half century, yet honest assessment requires acknowledging where fundamental challenges persist. The article proposes five adjustments for a future evaluation policy framework oriented toward better, faster, cheaper, and more usable evaluation.

Resource of the Week: Strategic Spartanburg Dashboard

City of Spartanburg, SC

Strategic Spartanburg is a non-profit research organization that leverages data and evidence to improve the quality of life in Spartanburg County by conducting research that informs policy and practice. Its website includes an Upward Mobility dashboard and a Community Indicators Project Data dashboard, along with a series of policy briefs.