2022 State Standard of Excellence Practices by Criteria & Sector
The 2022 Invest in What Works State Standard of Excellence includes 16 criteria that are organized by thematic areas: Managing for Results, Leveraging Data, Building and Using Evidence, and Investing for Results. The charts below show the change of State Standard of Excellence examples in each theme by criteria from 2018-2022.
Managing for Results
Managing performance starts with understanding how the Governor’s administration defines success and builds the overarching system and culture to deliver that success. Without a set of goals and metrics (or strategic plans) to define the administration’s agenda, it is difficult to communicate to staff within the agencies or the general public what the government aims to deliver. Governors and state leaders should seek to ensure that goals are equity-oriented and publicly informed through authentic community and stakeholder engagement strategies.
Leveraging Data
The key to improving performance in government is to leverage data to inform goals, measure progress, and learn lessons for future improvement. States should be able to collect and share disaggregated data when and where appropriate to derive insights and improve data use. Further, state governments should engage with stakeholders, communities of color, and those impacted by data policies, practices, analysis, and use.
Building and Using Evidence
State governments should have the evaluation infrastructure that allows evidence to inform an administration’s budget, management, and policy decisions. In the generation and use of evidence, lived experience, stakeholder engagement on learning and knowledge building, and disaggregation of evaluation results can help state leaders understand how evidence can address issues of equity.
Investing For Results
Government spending is policy in action, and incorporating evidence and data into these spending decisions – in budgets, contracts, and grants – is the best way for state governments to focus on getting better results, and more equitable results, too.
Sector Examples
Within these criteria, states undertook efforts across numerous sectors, as reflected in the following chart.
