ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Dept of Gov Efficiency: What About Performance?

NextGov (Steve Kelman)

There is absolutely nothing in the Musk-Ramaswamy pronouncements about making the government more efficient by causing it to work better. They can’t bring about performance improvements in government by themselves; they need to work with those inside the agencies seeking a more efficient government.

WEBINAR: Evidence-Based Policy and the Budget Process

American Association of Budget & Policy Analysts (AABPA) – Thursday, Dec 12, Noon – 1 p.m. Eastern

How can the government identify and fund effective programs – and build new ones, through rigorous testing – to make real headway on the nation’s social problems? We will discuss how evidence-based policy can be incorporated into the budget process with Jon Baron, the President of the Coalition for Evidence Based Policy.

Maryland Schools Earn High Ranks on State Report Card

Washington Post

The new Maryland schools Superintendent Carey Wright critiqued the existing report card and appointed a task force to review it.. In April, she noted that a majority of schools received at least three starslast year, even though scores on state assessments show that just 23 percent of studentswere proficient in math and 47 percent of students were proficient in reading. One of the biggest questions forthe task force was whether to stop using a star rating system. The task force recommended instead using a “performance level” system. 

Resource of the Week:  Social Progress Imperative

This interesting nonprofit website aggregates social indicator data in interesting ways, and allows the user to explore hyperlocal data for 32,000 neighborhoods. It can be an interesting companion to the USAFacts.org website.

Performance Reporting Reimagined

U.S. Office of Management and Budget

Current federal agency performance reports are on the web, but tend to be complex and hard to navigate. OMB staff are piloting a way of reimagining this information. Here’s a link to a digital prototype.

Piloting a Federal Evaluation Approach for Cross-Agency Initiatives: A Test Case

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Asst. Sec. for Program Evaluation

HHS has engaged staff from across the Department to develop and test an approach for evaluating initiatives that involve multiple divisions, address the needs of a diversity of communities, and include varied approaches. Their test case looks at Overdose Prevention initiatives.

Does Program Evaluation Make a Difference in Policy Spending?

London School of Economics (Michelle Rao)

This is an intriguing paper that examines the relationship between program evaluations and changes in policy spending in a series of Latin American cash transfer programs. The author examined 128 program evaluations of these programs and concludes, “I find zero relationship between research results and spending.”

Resource of the Week:  Symposium on the Government Performance and Results Act at 30

International Journal of Public Administration

The symposium on GPRA is finally finished! Here’s a link to the table of contents and abstracts for each article. The full articles, however, are pay-walled.

Rx for Performance Pitfalls

Barrett & Greene

Performance management comes with a passel of challenges and pitfalls. But here are 11 prescriptions for dealing with these pitfalls. Item #1? – “acknowledge that performance management systems are an integral part of government – like budgeting or procurement – and not just an adjunct effort.”

Evidence-Based Budgeting Guide for States

Results for America

State governments invest over $1 trillion each year to meet the needs of vulnerable populations. But those taxpayer dollars don’t always produce the desired outcomes. IFortunately, there are an increasing number of evidence-based solutions that can deliver results for all Americans, and with the right tools and budgeting systems state government leaders can invest in these solutions and harness the power of their states’ spending.

Re-Branding Training from “Learning” to “Performance”

PA Times (Bill Brantley)

Rebranding Learning and Development Training as the Performance Department highlights that training should enhance productivity, improve services and advance the agency’s mission.

Resource of the Week:  Virginia’s Office of Data Governance and Analytics

This one-stop provides links to agency data sets and showcases analytic success stories. This office provides technical assistance to state agencies, local governments, and regional entities to promote data sharing and analytics.