ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Assessing and Improving Effectiveness

U.S. Government Accountability Office

A new GAO report concludes Federal programs do not consistently manage their performance. Its work often finds programs are focused on inputs (such as money to spend) and outputs (such as number of individuals who received benefits). By contrast, outcomes are the results of a program (such as number of individuals whose lives improved in an intended way).

Do More to Measure Agency Performance

Federal News Network

Knowing whether a program is succeeding requires more than good intentions. It requires a disciplined look at results. Congress strengthened federal performance-management requirements in 2024, but a new GAO review finds important pieces still haven’t been fully implemented.

WEBINAR: Performance Management: Not Just for Reporting (Thur, July 23, 1 p.m. Eastern)

Center for Accountability & Performance

Performance management at all levels of government (and nonprofit organizations) has a long but sometimes sporadic history as a tool for planning, program monitoring, decision making, and accountability. Accountability often gets the most attention, with requirements for routine reporting. But how can performance measures also be used to identify strategic directions, monitor programs, and ensure data availability for more robust analysis such as program evaluation?

Seeing Around Corners

FastCompany

An underused AI application is to generate leading indicators of issues on the horizon, empowering agency leaders to get ahead of challenges before they become full-blown crises.

AI and Foresight

Fibres

AI can scan thousands of sources, summarize weak signals, cluster trends, and draft scenarios in minutes. Yet many organizations still struggle to turn foresight into action. That’s when storytelling and human insight matter.

Louisiana’s Efficiency Push

Barrett & Greene

The author of this guest column, Jerry Luke LeBlanc, introduced the Louisiana Government Performance and Accountability Act over 29 years ago. The statute has been in continuous operation for twenty-nine years under five governors of both parties without major structural amendment. By any measure of durability, it is among the most resilient performance accountability systems in the country.

Federal Emphasis on Accountability in Grants Management

PATimes

Federal priorities are changing to emphasize greater accountability. In the process, the systems, rules and relationships that once made intergovernmental funding more stable are weakening. For practitioners, this highlights the need for better coordination, stronger internal capacity and a clearer view of federal grants as a strategic management issue rather than simply a compliance task.

Lessons from a Career in Employee Performance Management

Partnership for Public Service

Former federal executive Elizabeth Kolmstetter reflects on her career in building performance management systems for a wide range of federal agencies.

Resource of the Week:  Maryland Analytics

Here’s a dashboard of the State of Maryland’s web traffic, audience trends, and digital performance data for 121participating state agencies’ websites.

Looking for a Performance Culture?

LinkedIn (Mark Hocknell)

A productive workplace culture is a blend of the way work gets done and how the work gets done. These are foundations for creating a high-performance culture.

Can Pay for Performance Fix Bureaucracies?

London School of Economics & Political Science (Martin Williams)

Governments often see performance-linked pay as a solution to inefficient public institutions. But in practice, it rarely works as intended. Reforms should stop trying something that usually ends in a costly and distracting failure and instead focus their energy on more effective and practical ways to improve performance.

I Came to New Mexico for a PhD and Stayed to Make Government Work Better

Substack (Sarah Dinces)

Most state legislatures keep their budgeting and evaluation teams separate. But in New Mexico, they exist together, sending a clear message that understanding results is integral to deciding how public dollars should be spent. This gives agency leaders a real incentive to work with the legislature and allows fiscal analysts to quickly turn recommendations into action.

Measure What Matters

Substack (Scott Kupor)

Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Scott Kupor: “Employee engagement surveys should . . . be designed, administered, and acted upon by the agencies that understand their own missions, structures, workforces, and management challenges—not administered by OPM as a government-wide ritual.”

Promise and Performance of Social Impact Bonds

Public Management Review

The authors evaluate SIB performance against promises and found that while SIBs sometimes foster intersectoral collaboration, they can also surface power imbalances, institutionalize gaming, and inadvertently reduce public accountability. 

WEBINAR: Building Resilient Evaluation Procedures (Tues., June 30, 1 p.m. Eastern)

Center for Accountability & Performance

 How do we keep evaluation and performance management practices responsive, agile and resilient when the ground is constantly shifting beneath us? This webinar brings together current state and local leaders for a practical exchange that explores this question. Speakers will focus on the strategies, mindsets and practices that keep performance management credible in any environment.

Addressing Crosscutting Performance Challenges

U.S. Government Accountability Office

GAO held a series of discussion groups on ways to improve performance on crosscutting activities such as food safety and cybersecurity, and Cross Agency Priority Goals. Discussion group participants shared their views on ways to help OMB and agencies more effectively implement CAP goals. These views are summarized into five broad approaches.

Agencies Not Meeting Federal Performance Act Requirements

U.S. Government Accountability Office

The Federal Agency Performance Act of 2024 requires OMB and federal agencies to better manage performance and crosscutting issues, such as food safety and cybersecurity. GAO found OMB made limited progress in implementing this law, as did selected federal agencies GAO interviewed.

Drug Free Communities Support Programs Need to Improve Performance Data

U.S. Government Accountability Office

The Office of National Drug Control Policy’s Drug-Free Communities Support Program provides grants to community-based coalitions focused on drug use prevention for youth under 18. This office has consistently claimed, since 2023, that this program is reducing substance use among youth. However, GAO found that the program doesn’t have enough performance data to make such a claim.