Today, at a virtual event co-hosted by the National Governors Association, Results for America recognized North Carolina as a national leader in using data and evidence to guide decision-making and investing taxpayer dollars in programs that work.
Results for America is a national nonprofit that promotes evidence-based policymaking. Its newly released 2023 Invest in What Works State Standard of Excellence highlights advances in evidence-based grantmaking, budgeting and direct services, and identifies 194 efforts across 46 states to build and use evidence and data to achieve better, more equitable results for residents. Since 2018, the State Standard of Excellence has offered states a benchmark for their existing data and evidence capacity, as well as a roadmap for how they can accelerate their progress.
North Carolina was one of five Leading States. Highlights of its data-driven work include:
- Investing $1 million for high-impact research and evaluation projects on topics including student and teacher outcomes, workforce development, and domestic violence.
- Requiring agencies to include in their strategic plans, for the first time, priority needs for new evidence to help design and implement effective solutions in the future.
- Developing public participation plans to involve communities across the state in environmental policy concerns and to increase transparency in government decision-making.
- Holding a statewide listening tour to collect public feedback on digital equity plans.
“I’m grateful that we’ve again earned this honor,” Governor Roy Cooper said. “We’re going to continue to use evidence-based policy to improve decision-making and maximize the investment of taxpayers.”
“In red states and blue states, state governments are harnessing the power of evidence and data to deliver better results,” said Michele Jolin, CEO and Co-Founder of Results for America. “Governors, state legislators and state agency leaders are using the key levers of power – grantmaking, budgeting and direct services – to expand evidence-based solutions and accelerate economic mobility. By building more efficient and effective governments, they are helping restore the public’s faith in government’s ability to tackle our most urgent challenges.”
The other Leading States are Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, and Tennessee. Honorable Mention states are California, Connecticut, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Utah. For more information about how states are building their data and evidence capacity, visit Results for America’s 2023 Invest in What Works State Standard of Excellence.