The Short Answer 1. Start with ends and work backward to means. 2. Use data to drive decisions, not just measure success or failure after the fact. 3. Results are desired conditions of well-being, the ends we want, for children, adults families and communities 4. Improving results means getting from … Read More
2.2 What is the difference between population well-being (Results-Based Accountability) and client well-being (performance accountability) and why is it important?
The Short Answer 1. Population accountability is accountability for the well-being of a whole population in a geographic area. Population accountability is bigger than any one program or agency or one level of government. In fact, it’s bigger than government. It requires the whole community, public and private partners to make a … Read More
2.3 How do we get people to understand the difference between indicators and performance measures?
The Short Answer Indicators are about whole populations. Performance measures are about client populations. Indicators are usually about peoples’ lives, whether or not they receive any service. Performance measures are usually about people who receive service. Indicators are proxies for the well-being of whole populations, and necessarily matters of approximation and compromise. Performance measures … Read More
2.4 What are some populations for which results can be developed and used?
he Short Answer 1. Populations and subpopulations can be defined by geography or by both characteristic and geography. 2. Examples of populations include: all children in the county, all children 0 to 5 in the county, all children 0 to 5 in the Fairfield neighborhood of the county; all elders … Read More
2.5 How do we select results for a given population?
The Short Answer 1. Results are plain language conditions of well-being for children, adults, families and communities. 2. Choosing results is a political process more than a technical process. You are looking for a set of statements which are understandable to the public, say something important about the well-being of … Read More
2.6 How do we identify results in terms of everyday experience?
The Short Answer 1. Ask people how they experience the results (e.g. healthy and safe children) in their every day lives. What do we see, hear, feel? For example, for safe children, we might observe children wearing bike helmets. 2. Experience” is the bridge between plain language results and indicators. … Read More
2.7 How do we select indicators for a result?
The Short Answer 1. Start by assessing the result in terms of everyday experience, what we see hear, or feel about children ready for school or stable families. 2. Brainstorm a list of candidate indicators. Each entry is a data statement, e.g. % of children reading at grade level, rate … Read More
2.8 Where do we get the data for indicators? How do we get better data?
The Short Answer 1. Look at what others have done. There are many websites with report cards and data sources that others have used. (See tools.) 2. Get your partners to help access what now is produced. Sometimes the best data on child and family well-being comes from the public … Read More
2.9 What do we do if we don’t have any good data at all?
The Short Answer 1. Use the results and the experiential version of results to drive the process. Instead of asking “How are we doing on the baseline?” we ask “How are we doing producing the result we want?” How prevalent are the experiences which tell us about this result?” “Are … Read More
2.10 How do we create a report card and what do we do with it?
The Short Answer 1. Gain organizational and political sponsorship, necessary to produce the document and give it standing in the decision making process. 2. Identify results and indicators, using a broad process to involve partners, and grounded in a conceptually clear framework. See 2.5 and 2.6, and 2.7. 3. Gather the data, starting with … Read More