Help Define The Future of What Works Cities
In 2017, Bloomberg Philanthropies and What Works Cities (WWC) established a Certification program to provide a Standard to assess the capacity of a city to use data for effective decision-making and to recognize excellence. To date, more than 50 American cities have been awarded What Works Cities Certification to honor their achievements with data-informed decision-making.
Every three years, WWC takes stock of the Standard to ensure that our Certification criteria encompass the best practices for data-driven governance. We do this work publicly with our community to maintain a high bar that will encourage cities to seek support and recognition for use of data to improve residents’ lives.
This year, WWC will introduce a new version of the Standard. As a first step in this transition, WWC is proud to release the draft criteria for public comment and review.
The Standard has evolved to include an expanded emphasis on:
- Requiring cities to collect and use disaggregated data within each foundational practice
- Embedding equity principles into the processes and practices of each foundational practice
- Implementing targeted community engagement and qualitative data practices into cities’ decision-making practices
We are excited to hear from you — our partners, city practitioners, and residents — and look forward to your contributions. The public comment period serves as our initial sharing of the updates to the Standard, and we look forward to continued conversations with you in the coming weeks as we work to implement Version 3.0 of the Standard later this spring!
The draft is now available to view online and includes the below proposed new criteria and requirements for achieving Certification.
The public comment period will be open from Thursday, April 14 through Wednesday, April 27. If you have any questions, please email them to certification@whatworkscities.org.
New Criteria
- Data Management (DM):
– Qualitative Data Practices (DM7)
– Disaggregated Data for Decision-Making (DM8)
– Data Service Standard (DM9) - Rigorous Evaluation (EVAL):
– Adapting Evidence-Based Programs (EVAL4) - Open Data (OD):
– User Guidance for Open and Shared Data (OD2) - Stakeholder Impact (SI):
– Analytics Service Delivery (SI2)
– Influencing with Data & Evidence (SI3)
New Requirements for Achieving Certification
New research findings confirm the link between a city’s strong data practices and improved wellbeing for residents. To highlight the link between a city’s data practices and better resident outcomes, Version 3.0 of the Standard also introduces two additional areas of evaluation to achieve Certification: Core Criteria and Demonstration of Outcomes.
All Certified cities will need to demonstrate three core criteria:
- Executive Commitment to Data Informed Government (LC1)
- Implementing Data Strategy and Governance (DM1)
- Aligning Strategic Goals and Priorities to Performance Metrics (PA1)
In addition, all Certified cities will need to demonstrate progress on at least one of the below outcomes:
- Broadband Access
- Air Quality
- Youth Not in Education, Employment, or Training
The three outcome areas we’ve selected to evaluate cities on are just a starting point for the Certification program. We plan to incorporate the evaluation of more outcomes into the Standard as the program evolves.
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Thanks again for being a part of the What Works Cities community!
We can’t wait to see where your city is headed.
