Acknowledgements Preface About the Authors 1. Overview 2. Challenges Sustainability The human element Differing perspectives 3. Benefits Exhibit A: Montgomery County A catalogue of benefits San Jose, California Minnesota Wisconsin Indiana Denver, Colorado King County, Washington Case Study - New Orleans: Shock Therapy 4. History Progress at the state level Our ringside view Federal advances Box: Building the federal performance infrastructure Ups and downs Alternate approaches Box: Five major changes over the last thirty years Case study - Service Efforts and Accomplishments 5. Outcomes Knowing the goal Box: The demise of Oregon Benchmarks Striving for efficiency Selecting top-level measures Citizen surveys Connecting to national measures Case study - Washington: Cross-agency collaboration 6. Performance Budgeting Performance budgeting legislation Impediments Attention to evidence Budget execution The environment matters Case study - Austin: A budget with a vision Case study - Illinois: Unrealistic expectations 7. Pitfalls Insufficient resources Lack of data expertise Weak internal training Counterproductive incentives Slow response Lack of sustainability The practitioner-academic disconnect Fear of adverse reaction Too much hype Flaws with targets A limited focus Neglect of intractable problems Legislative indifference Politics trumps management Checklist: Rx for Pitfalls 8.

Buy-In Resisters Accountability vs. performance improvement Agency ownership Stat evolution A collaborative approach Case study -- Colorado Q&A on achieving buy-in 9. Validation Consequences of bad data Bad data and drugs Inconsistent comparisons Data fudging and outright cheating Verification A path forward Box: The roots of inaccuracy Sloppy data Ineffective system controls Inconsistent information and changing definitions Privatization/contractor/third party issues Case study - New York: Changing the definitions 10. Data progress Service delivery Open data Data sharing Data governance The push for more helpful data Box - Outdated technology Box: The path forward Case study - Little Rock, Arkansas: Of data and human beings 11. Evaluation Evaluation on the frontlines Shifting the paradigm Box: The evidence movement Box: A cost-benefit approach Case study -- Los Angeles: Solving a police recruiting puzzle Resources Glossary Index.