GoverningStat

GoverningStat is a process designed for driving performance improvement and accountability process for school districts, state agencies, and city governments serious about government reform. The "Stat" process is not technology. It is a data-driven management process designed to help change your organizational culture to one in which performance matters.

UPD’s GoverningStat program helps managers to connect the work of their organization with the outcomes they are producing for their "customers"—the public, students, parents, businesses, other government offices, etc. Through the Stat process, managers operate around a set of key performance indicators that represent the results their customers expect them to achieve. The GoverningStat process facilitates the methodical review, analysis, and discussion of what performance data show, and helps managers to use that data to manage for results.

Urban Policy Development brings exceptional experience in supporting the development of Stat processes. UPD consultants were part of Baltimore CitiStat and ran Baltimore SchoolStat in the Baltimore Public School System. Under support from the Stupski Foundation, we helped the Paterson, NJ Public School System (the 3rd largest in the state) build Paterson SchoolStat. With support from the Gates Foundation, we helped the DC Office of the State Superintendent to build EdStat, the first application of the Stat process to a State Education Agency in the nation.

Our basic engagement model is as follows:

1. A school district, city government or state agency hires UPD and provides guidance on the offices, services, or goals that it wishes to reform.
2. Together we form a "core accountability team" to create simple data collection and analysis tools to measure performance.
3. UPD staff then coaches the "core accountability team" to set up and run Stat meetings and oversee continuous improvement until that team is capable of managing the process on its own.
4. In between meetings, we typically work alongside district managers to help fix the problems uncovered in the meetings.

Unlike other forms of the Stat model operating in police departments and other agencies across the country, UPD’s model is structured to actually solve problems, not just increase pressure on managers to improve. The Stat divisions we have helped our clients establish serve as "internal consultants" who assist internal departments and divisions in changing the culture and improving performance. We help our clients build the capacity to Stat virtually anything, reducing the need for outside consultants into the future.

Put UPD to work for your government agency and join the scores of other organizations taking advantage of the Stat technique. Your managers will notice the difference—and so will your customers.