"Geek cities" use data better.

Cities are building evidence about the most effective and efficient practices, policies, and programs; investing taxpayer dollars in programs that are demonstrated to work; and directing funds away from programs that consistently fail to achieve measurable outcomes, according to a paper from Results for America, an initiative of America Achieves, and The Bridgespan Group. The paper, titled Geek Cities: How Smarter Use of Data and Evidence Can Improve Lives, highlights the nation's best efforts at using data and evidence to get better results, reporting on the data and results revolution taking place in local governments and analyzing how these jurisdictions are radically transforming their city services by embracing "geeky" analysis of hard data and evidence to drive results.

Based on new research and a compilation of 45 interviews with leaders from America's most innovative cities, the paper details ways cities are using data and evidence to improve the lives of residents. The paper holds up six "Geek Cities" as examples worth emulating--jurisdictions that are on the forefront of using data and evidence to improve outcomes and communities: Baltimore, Maryland; Denver, Colorado; Miami, Florida; New York, New York; Providence, Rhode Island; and San Antonio, Texas. These six cities invest in building evidence, using data, and monitoring performance. They compare the levels of evidence behind programs and set priorities and allocate funding based on that evidence. They are breaking down silos and experimenting and inventing their way out of problems.

Some of the winning examples include:

* Baltimore upended its budgeting process to implement one that is outcome-driven and focused on hard data. The city is shifting resources toward evidence-based interventions to eliminate infant mortality, for example.

* Denver embraced a data-driven approach to tracking and continuously improving its schools and is investing in an in-house "academy" to teach city employees how to innovate, measure performance, and continuously track their data and improve results.

* Miami revamped its education system by honing in on school performance data and regularly tracking that data on each child.

* New York City chose to invest in data--trying out new methods of serving critical populations, but carefully tracking the success rates of each method. The city then made the tough decisions to shift dollars away from programs that--according to evidence and data--were...