Articles #Data

Most nonprofits, schools and youth-serving organizations do not have a history of systematically using data to inform and improve practice. We have learned that it takes a concerted and sustained effort to create the conditions to support a culture of data use in organizations and intentional support for staff to become effective users of data.

Report produced by William Moore and David Norris summarizing a study of unmet medical need in Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO. Report was published by the Urban League of Greater Kansas City in their 2015 State of Black Kansas City report.

This report is the first publication about an ongoing, large-scale evaluation of a District-wide, comprehensive school reform initiative underway in Kansas City, Kansas called First Things First (FTF). The initiative is directed and implemented by a partnership of three organizations: the Kansas City, Kansas School District; the Institute for Research and Reform in Education – developer of the FTF framework and primary technical assistance provider to the District; and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation – FTF’s major private supporter. The FTF model is an example of the newer breed of comprehensive reform, called “theory of change” initiatives, which took shape in the 1990s as a promising approach to systems change. The theory of change approach entails specifying and sequencing each step required to achieve the desired systemic outcomes, which allows for early, intermediate and long-term progress and outcomes to be identified and monitored over the course of a reform.