Streamlining Procedures: A Guide for Efficient and Swift Data Gathering

The Vice President for Program Evaluation and Policy Analysis at ForsMarch, Karen Clark, and Justin Baer, her counterpart, have proposed a new model for federal evidence building. This model, called agile evidence building, aims to replace retrospective, one-off studies with real-time, embedded performance tracking.

The focus is on evaluation that directly supports better operations and service delivery, rather than an academic exercise. This shift is crucial to ensure public services deliver meaningful results for the American people.

The proposed model suggests that evaluation should be embedded in the design and delivery of citizen-facing services. Measurable service goals and real-time performance monitoring are key components of this approach. Every major digital platform for patents, passports, or benefits should include performance monitoring to support continuous improvement and public accountability.

Agencies prioritise setting minimum viable evaluation (MVE) standards for grant recipients. The centralised dashboard should highlight indicators such as jobs created, cost per outcome, or overall program value, enabling cross-program comparisons and guiding resource allocation.

Reporting from the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) provides limited insight into how funds are spent and whether programs work, why they work, or what outcomes they produce. Traditional approaches to federal evaluation are slow, costly, and often disconnected from policymaking.

Many federal evaluations take years to complete and cost millions, yet their findings are often too modest or too late to be useful. Programs like Social Security's Ticket to Work and the 21st Century Community Learning Centers have undergone rigorous evaluations that found little to no positive impact, yet they persist, reauthorized, funded, and reevaluated year after year.

Federal surveys, like the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), are overdue for modernization, with limited practical application and minimal reporting to policymakers. Formula and competitive grant programs, which make up a large portion of federal spending, often lack meaningful evaluation requirements.

To address these issues, federal agencies should focus on making data more usable and relevant to policymakers and the public, reducing duplication, and improving quality. The government should update data collections on key national conditions to use modern, cost-effective tools like survey panels, passive data collection, and administrative records.

The tools of evaluation should serve a new purpose: to drive better decisions in real time, with fewer resources, and greater agility. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has ended several longstanding research and survey initiatives and laid off employees from evaluation and statistical offices, signalling a move towards this new approach.

The principles of agile evidence building can help federal agencies move beyond outdated systems and into a new era of responsive governance. It's time to shift from evidence as an academic exercise to evidence as an operational advantage.