Too often, contracting is seen as a back-office function, even though many government programs are actually implemented with contracted service providers. In reality, contracting — and contracting reforms — can be a key driver of better results in human services, including for the most vulnerable families and individuals. We discuss specific steps in results-driven contracting with Lisa Morrison Butler, the former Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) and now the Executive Vice President and Chief Impact Officer at Results for America. She served as Commi ..read more

When we think about what skills leaders need to be successful — such as making good decisions, regulating their emotions and stress, and forming strong and healthy relationships with others — an important foundation for those skills is mindfulness. Our guest today has deep expertise in helping people cultivate self-awareness and mindfulness in order to (to paraphrase his own words) help them become the person they’re meant to be in the world, hopefully growing towards that day by day. Rabbi Marc Margolius is the Senior Program Director at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. He hosts IJS’s d ..read more

To celebrate our 200th interview, we are joined by one of the most respected people within the evidence and evaluation field, Dr. Naomi Goldstein, to share reflections on her 21-year career at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Human Services. Dr. Goldstein (@NaomiGoldstein1) is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning, Research, and Evaluation at ACF. She will retire from federal service this week after a 21-year tenure at ACF, including becoming Director of the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) in 2004 and Deputy Assistant Se ..read more

Colorado is a leader in the U.S. in terms of using evidence to guide state budget decisions, so that dollars flow to programs that are effective. It’s also a leader in terms of building evidence to better learn what works in key program areas. For example: State agencies are required by the governor’s budget office to show the evidence behind requested budget changes. In doing that, agencies use a framework called the “Evidence Continuum” that describes the stages of building and assessing program information. Also, the legislature now requires agencies to use consistent definitions of eviden ..read more

An important area of innovation within higher-education policy in recent years has been tuition-free college policies — also known as Promise Programs — designed to make college more affordable and accessible. Our previous podcast interview with Professor Elizabeth Bell of Florida State University provided an overview of the topic. In this new interview, we focus further on state-level programs, including the fact that Promise Programs have spread to states of very different political leanings. To do that, we are joined by Dr. Michelle Miller-Adams (@mmilleradams). She is the co-director of th ..read more

Tuition-free college policies have become a cornerstone of policymakers’ efforts to expand college access, affordability, and degree attainment. The movement began at the local level with initiatives such as the Kalamazoo Promise, but has since been taken to the state level, with 21 states currently operating Promise Programs. To learn more about these important policies and the evidence behind them, we are joined by someone who has examined them closely, Dr. Elizabeth Bell (@PoliSciBell). She is an Assistant Professor at the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at Florida State Un ..read more

Arnold Ventures launched its evidence-based policy initiative in 2015 in large part to increase the number of social policy programs with strong evidence behind them. To do that, the team funds randomized controlled trials of programs in social policy whose prior evidence has shown the potential for sizable effects on education, earnings, crime, and other important outcomes. To date it has funded over 100 RCTs and disseminates the findings through its Straight Talk on Evidence (@NoSpinEvidence) and Social Programs that Work websites. To hear lessons from that work and also broader observations ..read more

Minnesota has been identified by several good-government organizations as one of the leaders in the nation on evidence-based policymaking. The Pew Charitable Trusts, for example, has noted that “Using evidence-based policymaking has enabled Minnesota…to provide better outcomes for residents, [and] improve the way research and evidence inform the budget and policymaking processes….” One important piece of that story is how the state launched an Impact Evaluation Unit within  Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB). The Impact Evaluation Unit helps lead the development of program invento ..read more

Ohio’s Department of Education is one of the leading state agencies in the U.S. in terms of its focus on helping and encouraging school leaders to use evidence-based educational strategies and supports. For the past almost four years, Dr. Heather Boughton (@hrosemaryb) helped lead those efforts. She’s the former director of the Office of Research, Evaluation & Advanced Analytics within the Department. She served in the department for almost 13 years before starting a new role last month as Director of Education Policy Implementation at Results for America. In our interview, she discusses t ..read more

Anne Arundel County, Maryland, has a population of just under 600,000 and is south of Baltimore and East of Washington D.C., with the county seat being Annapolis. In 2018, under County Executive Steuart Pittman, the county launched a performance-focused office called ArundelStat. One of the key initiatives of the office so far has been developing performance plans for 30 county departments. Those plans are being used by top executive leadership within the county to track departmental performance trends and focus on and tackle priority performance challenges. To learn more, we’re joined by Eliz ..read more