Budget Blog

States Continue Efforts to Advance the Use of Data and Evidence

By Kathryn White posted 07-31-2019 10:16 AM

  

In 2018, NASBO released the first edition of a new resource, Statewide Initiatives to Advance the Use of Data & Evidence for Decision-Making: A Working Inventory. This compilation was intended to catalog state government efforts to use data and evidence in decision-making through performance management systems, data analytics, evidence-based initiatives, process improvement strategies, and performance budgeting methods.

States continue to make progress in this arena, harnessing administrative data, greater access to research clearinghouses, partnerships with universities and foundations, and other tools and new technologies to advance these efforts. This summer, NASBO worked with state budget offices to update this resource to capture recent developments and the current status of statewide initiatives to leverage data and evidence to inform decisions. In connection with the working inventory data collection effort, NASBO also consulted state budget offices on items in governors’ proposed and states’ enacted budgets for FY 2020 that demonstrate the use of data and evidence in decision-making. 

This issue brief reviews summary findings and observations from the updated inventory, as well as highlights examples of budget proposals that demonstrate the use of data and evidence that were ultimately approved in states’ enacted budgets. 

The latest version of the inventory is available for download under “Resources” at: https://www.nasbo.org/reports-data/using-data-and-evidence.