A new report from The Urban Institute, Measuring Performance: A Guidance Document for Promise Neighborhoods on Collecting Data and Reporting Results, provides recommendations on data collection and strategies to track progress over time and ensure program efficiency and effectiveness. Other place-based initiatives and organizations working to improve schools and early childhood education programs in their communities may find these recommendations useful for measuring the progress of their efforts.
Promise Neighborhoods is a federal place-based initiative intended to turn neighborhoods of concentrated poverty into neighborhoods of opportunity by providing a continuum of school readiness, academic services, and family and community supports for children from early childhood through college. The initiative seeks to improve kindergarten readiness, proficiency in core subjects, high school graduation rates, and the chance of obtaining a post-secondary degree. As a federal funding requirement, Promise Neighborhoods collect and track a wide-range of data on an on-going basis to help manage improvement efforts, make mid-course corrections, and ultimately to determine which strategies are most effective in improving outcomes for children, youth, and families.
Transform Consulting Group has worked with the Martindale Brightwood community in Indianapolis on developing a Promise Neighborhood. Contact us today to learn how we can help your organization develop the best ways to collect data to improving the quality of programs and services, to evaluate the success of initiatives, and most importantly, to achieve better results!
