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“If you care about the result, if you care about what happens to kids, if you care about solving problems, that means you have to care about evidence and data.” Leaders discuss the rationale for high performance

“If we don’t know we’re making a difference then there’s no reason to be doing what we’re doing.”
—Bridget Laird, WINGS for Kids

We have to hold ourselves to standards of evidence that conclusively show that over time that, yes, we are making a difference in the lives of young people, but that we are also getting better at it.
—Nick Ehrmann, Founder & CEO, Blue Engine

Putting in place resources to develop knowledge of how outcomes are achieved and identifying ways to consistently improve is part of Blue Engine’s commitment to serving young people.
—Nick Ehrmann, Founder & CEO, Blue Engine

“We want them [our kids] to be well taken care of. We want them to give back to their community. We want them to leave a legacy of growth and pursue education.”
—Sam Cobbs, First Place for Youth

“How do we know we’re making a difference?”
—Cynthia Figueroa, Roca, Inc.

“Mindy, our executive director, was motivated by knowing the facts, knowing the truth.”
—Brad Dudding, Center for Employment Opportunities

“What are we failing to do where we’re not seeing the kind of growth we would expect from this very bright child?”
—Lou Salza, Lawrence School

“[Youth Villages] faces children’s problems head on, without flinching.” Youth Villages

“I came [to my role] because I have a passion for change, for seeing things better than they are.”
—Adam Tenner, Metro TeenAIDS

“Make sure you have people with the right competencies.”
—Brad Dudding

Sotun Krouch came to Roca, Inc. as a student; now he’s a member of the leadership team.

Duggan describes how ‘real’ change required drastic measures so students could focus attention solely on school-related work.

A clear program model and consistent implementation allows New Door Ventures to better process what they learn and make better-informed program adjustments.

The expertise and experience of our coaches really forced New Door Ventures to clarify what they wanted out of their program, examine their theory of change, and refine it.

With an insurmountable number of needs in society, too few resources, and too few people equipped to serve the disadvantaged well, funders need to make sure every dollar spent yields the right impact.

Tess Reynolds stresses the importance of stretching every dollar to do the most good for the people they serve.

The key to becoming a learning organization is to develop effective strategies to analyze the data, learn from that, and let that guide the tactical adjustments in implementation.

You can say data is a tool for helping you do even better, and after staffers embrace that idea, the toughest task is to examine which things will have the greatest impact.

“If you don’t know where you are going, how do you know you are on the right track?”
—Tess Reynolds, CEO, New Door Ventures

“When youth workers are frustrated with data entry … I always try to bring it back to what’s important to them.”
—Sotun Krouch, Roca, Inc.

“You’re part of a culture that actually wants to achieve results.”
—Bridget Laird, WINGS for Kids

High performance management systems don’t just drive good outcomes, but also show over time that the organization is getting better at achieving those outcomes.

As a schoolteacher in Washington, DC in 2008, Nick Ehrmann started using statistics packages to measure core academic outcomes of different student groups, and couldn’t believe what he didn’t see.

It wasn’t until they looked at the data before staffers at Domus Kids truly understood the depth of the difference they were making in their students’ lives.

Before taking a more rigorous approach to performance measurement, most of the initial 89 indicators were “just a bunch of numbers on a piece of paper that made us feel good.”

Tess Reynolds describes some “a ha!” moments for her staff after they started utilizing data as an operational tool.

“Continuous improvement is the key to performance management.”
—Tony Fujs, Latin American Youth Center

Metro TeenAIDS leaders review training to ensure reinforcement of key outcomes to increase overall results.

“We started assessing our training sessions with volunteers and learned that [they] left knowing less than they knew when they started.”
—Matt Huckabay, The Center for Violence-Free Relationships

“Without a strong performance management infrastructure, we never would have understood there was a problem.”
—Isaac Castillo, former Director of Learning and Evaluation, Latin American Youth Center

“We’ve seen people take evidence and make … the tough decisions.”
—Melody Barnes, former Director of White House Domestic Policy Council for President Barack Obama

“Stories substituting for facts is not an acceptable thing; it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard.”
—Anne Goodman, Greater Cleveland Food Bank

An outline of three important takeaways from the e-learning landscape.

Mario Morino and Katie Paris reveal six of the ‘aha’ moments they experienced during the eLearning research process.

Mario Morino recounts how his interest in talent development and a series of serendipitous events kick-started the e-learning journey.

Mario Morino and Katie Paris define and discuss the landscape process and the breadth of individuals involved in the project.

How the seamless integration of technology across various platforms and channels is changing the way we transfer knowledge.