Performance measurement and evaluation have often received short shrift in reports about the Recovery Act. We were pleased to see that the May 2010 GAO Recovery Act report goes into more detail about these topics – even if they still only take up a small portion of the 344-pages. Here are some promising efforts that we've culled to share with you.

• The GAO strongly recommended that the Department of Transportation produce more information about the long-term results of Recovery Act investments. In the near term, it sugested that the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration “determine the types of data and performance measures they would need to assess the impact of the Recovery Act and the specific authority they may need to collect data and report on these measures.” Meanwhile, the DOT told GAO that its May 2009 program performance plans are being updated and that it is looking at whether its various monitoring and data systems for highways, bridges and transit could be used to assess Recovery Act impact.
• The Bureau of Justice Assistance has developed a new reporting tool for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program. About $2 billion in Recovery Act money was devoted to JAG work on law enforcement; crime prevention and education; corrections; drug treatment and enforcement; program planning; evaluation and technology improvement; crime victim and witness programs and other topics. Recipients of funds are asked to answer annual questions about accomplishments, problems or barriers and JAG grantees are reporting quarterly on performance measures. (About three quarters of grantees are currently reporting through the new system. )
• The Department of Labor is in the middle of a two-year evaluation assessing state actions in implementing the Recovery Act for the Workforce Investment Act dislocated workers program.  Beginning in Mid-May, the DOL is requiring states to submit detailed quarterly data on individual recipients in the dislocated workers program.  The department will separate out services funded through the Recovery Act and track outcomes such as job placement and employment retention. The GAO report says: “Labor has taken steps to ensure transparency and accountability for WIA Dislocated Worker Recovery Act funds. Requiring states to submit information on participants who received services funded by the Recovery Act and their outcomes is an important step toward this goal. When this information is available, it may provide a picture of the role Recovery Act funds played in helping dislocated workers.”
• The Department of Energy is expanding its efforts at determining the energy savings that result from weatherization efforts. An independent evaluation of energy savings and impact on clients’ energy bills is being conducted through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The idea is to compare billing data before and after weatherization work took place, with results expected in 2012. Energy is also exploring other ways of exploring energy savings based on getting access to utility company information on the bills of individuals whose homes have been weatherized.
• To receive the second phase of State Fiscal Stabilization Fund money for education, states had to include information in their applications pertaining to their ability to provide data on 37 indicators. According to the GAO, these include information on the number and percent of students graduating from high school in four years and the percent of “core academic courses” taught by highly qualified teachers in the highest and lowest poverty schools.  If states couldn’t provide the data currently, they had to describe how they would provide the data by September 30, 2011, at which point public reporting of the indicators is required.

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