View Research by Author - Mary Kopczynski Winkler

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Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/MaryKopczynskiWinkler

Nonprofits face growing demands to demonstrate their impact. Their ability to report on program performance is essential to organizational legitimacy and financial survival. This report chronicles the evaluation experiences of four youth-serving nonprofits that participated in the East of the River Initiative, a multi-year effort to increase the capacity of agencies to assess their performance. We detail key successes and challenges with the goal of sparking a dialogue between nonprofits, funders, and technical assistance providers about the proper value of evaluation in the sector.

This is the sixth in a series of annual reports about housing in the Washington metropolitan region. It assembles and analyzes the most current data on housing conditions and trends in the District of Columbia and the surrounding suburbs. Last year's report focused on linkages between housing and schools in the District of Columbia and the metropolitan region. This year's report takes a regional perspective, examining how the region addresses housing for special needs populations. More specifically, the report assesses the housing options and services available to the elderly, disabled, and homeless and explores the consequences and opportunities for housing policy across the region.

Despite evidence that the quality of a school building affects student academic performance, most public schools in Washington, D.C.; Maryland; and Virginia are in poor physical condition. This brief analyzes patterns of investment for public school construction in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area from 1995 to 2004. The greatest investment was for new school construction in the outlying suburbs. Spending increased over time throughout the region, led by large increases in renovation construction expenditures within the District of Columbia. Schools with high proportions of minority and low-income students received less investment on average.

The work described in this report first provides suggested core indicators for 14 categories of nonprofit organizations and then expands the notion of common core indicators to a much wider variety of programs by suggesting a common framework of outcome indicators for all nonprofit programs. This can provide guidance to nonprofits as they figure out what to measure and how to do it and will work to ease the looming reporting nightmare that will occur unless a common framework for outcome measurement emerges.

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 (P.L. 105-220) recognized the relationship between adult education and workforce development and the need for accountability in all literacy, training, and employment programs. Enacted as Title II of WIA, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) required substantial changes in the operations of state and local adult education programs, including allocation of funds, accountability and performance measurement, and the relationship between adult education and one-stop delivery systems. This report synthesizes information from a survey of all state directors of adult education and site visits to nine local programs in five states. Findings relate primarily to the first 18 months of AEFLA implementation.

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 (P.L. 105-220) recognized the relationship between adult education and workforce development and the need for accountability in all literacy, training, and employment programs. Enacted as Title II of WIA, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) required substantial changes in the operations of state and local adult education programs, including allocation of funds, accountability and performance measurement, and the relationship between adult education and one-stop delivery systems. This report synthesizes information from a survey of all state directors of adult education and site visits to nine local programs in five states. Findings relate primarily to the first 18 months of AEFLA implementation.

The 12th annual Fact Book is a comprehensive data source for indicators of child well-being in the District of Columbia. Over 50 data indicators are tracked over time from the following topic areas: population trends, economic security, family attachment and community support, homeless children and families, child health, safety and personal security, education, and selected indicators by ward, neighborhood cluster, and region.

This report provides detailed tables on the relationship between various individual characteristics and attitudes toward the performing arts among residents of the greater metropolitan areas of Austin, Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Sarasota, and Washington, D.C. The report is an aggregate of individual reports prepared on each of the five communities. Based on random household telephone surveys conducted between October and December of 2002, each of these reports are organized around four topics: attendance at performing arts events, perceived value of the performing arts to individuals, perceived value of the performing arts to the community, and barriers to greater participation.

This report is one of a series of ten community reports on the relationship between various individual characteristics and attitudes toward the performing arts. Analyses are based on a household telephone survey conducted in Sarasota and Manatee counties between October and December 2002. The report focuses on four topics: attendance at performing arts events, perceived value of the performing arts to individuals, perceived value of the performing arts to the community, and barriers to greater participation. The Performing Arts Research Coalition is a federation of national arts service organizations acting together to improve research on the arts and the capacity of local arts organizations to conduct research.

This report is one of a series of ten community reports on the relationship between various individual characteristics and attitudes toward the performing arts. Analyses are based on a household telephone survey conducted in the Twin Cities between October and December 2002. The report focuses on four topics: attendance at performing arts events, perceived value of the performing arts to individuals, perceived value of the performing arts to the community, and barriers to greater participation. The Performing Arts Research Coalition is a federation of national arts service organizations acting together to improve research on the arts and the capacity of local arts organizations to conduct research.

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