ASPA Center for Accountability & Performance

Codifying an Office to Track Implementation of President’s Management Agenda

Government Executive

The Governmentwide Executive Councils Administration and Results Improvement Act (S. 4828) would codify the existing Office of Executive Councils, which is located in the General Services Administration, and require it to coordinate policy planning and legislative recommendations for each of the existing statutory councils (such as the Chief Financial Officers Council and Chief Information Officers Council).

Access to Data for Accountability

Federal News Network

Ann Ebberts, the CEO of AGA, said the biggest challenge that emerged from the survey of federal inspectors general was about data sharing across the different organizations. She said the recognition that federal, state and local auditors could work faster and smarter if agencies and Congress removed some of the major roadblocks to sharing data.

Can Learning Agendas Improve Performance?

Federal News Network (Interview with Bob Tobias)

“Theoretically, it’s great. But I think a good process does not necessarily guarantee a good result. And I think the learning agenda missed the most important critical question to achieving increased agency performance. And that is leadership development.” 

Priority-Based Budgeting: An Honest Broker Among Municipal Functions?

Public Budgeting & Finance (David Mitchell) – Gated Article

This study examines 32 municipal PBB implementers with difference-in-differences analysis; finding a varied effect upon municipal functions that casts doubt on its ability to fully reallocate budgetary resources from low- to high-priority programs.

Pittsburg’s Priority-Based Budgeting Approach

City of Pittsburgh

We are creating a shared language with residents to better understand how the city’s budget is developed, prioritized, and ultimately aligned to community priorities. This budgeting approach provides clarity and an open space for the community to join the budgeting conversation.

Baltimore Creating Digital & Performance Teams to Improve Transparency

Technical.ly

$1.1 million of ARPA funds is being invested in expanding the capacity of the Mayor’s Office of Performance & Innovation with a City Performance Team. With the newly codified barometers, each city agency will be able to provide performance plans and reports to the public for more government transparency.

Resource of the Week:  Bringing Context to Quality of Life Ratings

Barrett & Greene

Government Performance Action and Learning is a new partnership whose goal is to bring together comprehensive community information, providing simple to use indices and insights that will lead to improved performance. It is intended to allow leaders to see connections between disparate community data that, before now, only lived in siloed sources.

Accountability for Roadway Designers

Governing

New York City has data showing substantial reductions in serious injuries and fatalities resulting from road diets, pedestrian islands and sidewalk extensions. Advocates say it’s a rare kind of accountability for roadway designers.

How Little Rock Is Harnessing Data

RouteFifty

Frank Scott made history when he became the first Black elected mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas, after his 2018 election. As mayor, Scott has emphasized the need to collect, use and share data on city services to improve the city’s responsiveness with the public.

Federal Management Learning Agenda

U.S. Office of Management and Budget

The Biden-Harris Management Agenda Vision sets out key priorities for an equitable, effective, and accountable Government that delivers results for all Americans. A management-focused learning agenda in support of the President’s Management Agenda (PMA) identifies key performance questions to answer to support the PMA vision.

Issue Brief: Communicating Evidence

Urban Institute

In this brief, we discuss the different ways in which evidence can be communicated to different types of users and the importance of evidence being timely, readily available, and comprehensible

U.S. Chief Data Scientist Advocates for More Disaggregating Data

FedScoop

U.S. Chief Data Scientist Denice Ross’ focus has been ensuring the data agencies are using and publishing are yielding more equitable outcomes for Americans. And that requires the “next generation of open data” as she sees it: disaggregated data.

Five-Year Progress Report on Evidence Commission Recommendations

Data Foundation

 This report summarizes the progress to date, emphasizes areas where need for attention remains, and recognizes there is substantial variation across federal agencies in implementing many of the key recommendations of the 2017 Evidence Commission.

Resource of the Week:  Two Tools for Tracking the American Rescue Plan’s Local and National Impacts

Brookings Institution

Brookings Metro and Greater MSP (the Twin Cities region) have created tools that gather, summarize, and visualize how local governments are putting their State-Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to work, in more than 300 communities across the country.

Missed Opportunities Redux

Government Executive

The federal government has created a one-stop website to aggregate agency planning and performance information. But who is its target audience? This article explores three potential approaches to presenting performance information that may encourage a demand for more – by different audiences.

Can Performance Dashboards Increase Citizen Trust?

InterAmerican Development Bank

Poor performance of democracies has eroded public trust in institutions in Latin America. This study is based on a survey of 1,999 citizens about their perceptions of transparency in the City of Buenos Aires, and their confidence in government. This infographic is a quick summary of results.

A Review of Open Strategy: Bridging Strategy and Public Management Research

Public Management Review

By reviewing open strategy studies, this article discusses how organizations can open up their strategy processes to be more transparent and inclusive. 

Leading Confidently with Data: 3 Steps for Every City Leader

Bloomberg Cities Network

City halls have come a long way over the past decade when it comes to using data to fight crime, protect public health, house the homeless, and so much more. As they get better at this work, one thing has become clear: The cities seeing the biggest gains are the ones where mayors are leading the charge. 

Strategic Performance Management Certificate

Suffolk University – National Center for Public Performance

The Fall 2022 offering for the NCPP’s Strategic Performance Management Certificate is now open for registration. This on-line course is 8 weeks long, beginning September 19, and costs $1,100 per student for public and non-profit employees.

Resource of the Week:  LocalInfrastructure.org

Bloomberg Philanthropies

The Local Infrastructure Hub is a national program designed to connect cities and towns with the resources and expert advice they need to access federal infrastructure funding using data-driven approaches in order to drive local progress, improve communities, and deliver results for residents.

Keeping Current: How Data Can Help Enhance Public Safety

Center for Accountability & Performance (Webinar: Wed., Sept. 14, 1 p.m. ET)

This webinar is a case study that focuses on the way Durham, North Carolina, has used its 911 data to guide its strategic alignment, deployment and evaluation of resources for public safety. 

Is Judging Principals by Test Scores a Mistake?

Barrett Greene, Inc.

We were struck by a working paper, published by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University (to which we were alerted in an article in Education Week) that questions the value of linking school principals success to test scores.

Evaluating the Impact of Services Provided by Community-Based Organizations

San Francisco City/County Services Auditor

The audit had as its objective to evaluate the frameworks departments use to measure the impact of services provided by community-based organizations (CBOs) based on departmental practices and leading practices in program monitoring.

Fixing Air Travel with a Dashboard?

New York Times

The U.S. Department of Transportation has unveiled its most concrete endeavor yet to fix air travel: an online dashboard featuring 10 U.S. airlines with green check marks next to the services they offer when flights are delayed or canceled for reasons within their control. 

Evidence Commission – Progress 5 Years Later

Data Foundation (on-line event – Tues., Sept 13, 3 p.m. ET)

Join the Data Foundation and the Bipartisan Policy Center — along with government officials and members of civil society—for a discussion of the progress to date and next steps in implementing the Evidence Commission’s vision and recommendations on the 5-year anniversary of its milestone report.

Making Sense of Performance Information During the Pandemic

Journal of Behavioral Public Administration (Maria Falk Mikkesen)

Citizens are more likely to make decisions based on performance information on equality than effectiveness and cost when no ‘yardstick’ is available. Results imply that performance information on effectiveness and cost risk being drown out by other information easier to interpret if not presented with relevant reference points.

Benchmarking Local Government Services (gated article)

State & Local Government Review (Saman Shafiq et al)

Conventional benchmarking methods that rely on pre-existing measures may not be best suited for many of the challenges confronting local service delivery. This paper introduces an issue-based benchmarking method and describes the six-stage cycle implemented by a benchmarking collaborative in the Chicagoland region.

Resource of the Week:  City of Phoenix Dashboard

The City Manager’s Performance Dashboardwas created to provide the public with comprehensive, easy-to-understand information about the City of Phoenix. It includes over 130 key performance indicators across strategic areas and general government services that measure the city’s health. 

Growing Data Divide

Government Executive

A recent report from the Center for Data Innovation says a lack of collection and use of data across demographics is leading to disparities in access to critical services.

Making Participatory Budgeting Work: Experiences from the Front Lines

Brennan Center for Justice

Giving Americans a louder voice in political processes is central to restoring trust in government. Pioneered in 1989 in Brazil, participatory budgeting is finding a foothold in U.S. cities.

N. Carolina Funds Data Analysts, Program Evaluation to Strengthen Use of Evidence

Results First/Pew Charitable Trusts

Leaders in North Carolina’s executive and legislative branches are investing in more tools and personnel to study the impact of publicly funded programs and determine how to deliver them with greater efficiency to the state’s residents.

Developing Actionable Insights: A Context for Future Research

IBM Center for The Business of Government

To achieve the goal of a government that uses data to extract insights for better decisions, researchers can help public leaders and stakeholders better understand and adopt promising practices. Such studies can drive data and analyses that help support policy or program decisions that measurably improve government operations and results. Proposals for such studies are due September 6^th!

Resource of the Week:  Teacher Shortage by State

National Conference of State Legislatures

Great example of the value of disaggregated data to analyze national and state level trends, by subject areas, grade levels, geographic regions.