Pennsylvania - 2024 State Standard of Excellence | Results for America (2024)

The Pennsylvania Governor’s Executive Order 2023-01 established the Pennsylvania Longitudinal Data System (PALDS), headed by an Executive Director. The EO’s intent is to bring together independent data sets related to education, workforce, and human services that would allow state agencies and policy makers to: understand long-term outcomes and contribute to better informed funding and policy decisions; spend less time finding and validating disparate data sources and more time analyzing it; establish transparent, trackable goals; develop partnerships to identify key research questions, performance measures, and outcomes; align investments to effective programming; and demonstrate progress towards workforce system goals and recommendations. The EO also established a Governance Board to coordinate evaluation of policy and use of findings. The PALDS program efforts also are guided by the Director of Research for the Governor’s Office who works cross-department and cross-agency to track and identify the Administration’s impact on the Commonwealth.

A 2017 executive order enhanced Pennsylvania’s enterprise approach to using data as a strategic asset by creating an open data program, establishing a statewide Chief Data Officer (CDO) and data advisory committee that includes data stewards, and encouraging the sharing and use of data. The CDO reports to the Deputy Secretary for Information Technology and State Chief Information Officer (CIO) in the Governor’s Office of Administration, and is charged with overseeing the use, management, and governance of data statewide. In 2021, the Chief Information Officer described the governance structures (Appendix E) related to shared services, including data management, in a 2021 testimony to the State Senate and its Communications and Technology Committee on state information technology legislation.

The Governor’s executive order on open data, data management, and data governance, first issued in 2017 and amended in 2019, states that data shall be shared internally and externally, whenever possible unless restricted by federal, state, or other statutes or regulations or by policies, standards, or best practices that prohibit the sharing of specific data, in order to foster innovation, cooperation, and transparency. In 2017, the state also created an enterprise data-sharing memorandum of understanding (eMOU), providing a more efficient process to obtain and provide data by, between, and among Commonwealth agencies. When it comes to sharing geospatial data in particular, the Pennsylvania State Geospatial Board has a publicly available data-sharing agreement to facilitate the sharing of data between government entities and non-state data owners, including academia, business, and nonprofits. The impact of data sharing is reflected in the board’s annual reports and special reports on state and local data sharing, importance of broadband access, COVID-19 response and recovery efforts, and land use and transportation planning.

In August 2021, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) released a Notice of Grant Availability for up to $4 million of funding for Pennsylvania Industry Partnerships grants. Grant applicants will be evaluated in part by data collection and performance outcomes (15 points out of 100) as well as evidence building and project effectiveness (10 points out of 100). As part of the latter category, applicants must identify their level (or category) of evidence and “explain how they intend to strengthen their ability to utilize evidence for the purposes of evaluating program outcomes.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections administers the evidence-based State Drug Treatment Program. For over 10 years, the Department of Corrections (DOC) has published a biannual State Intermediate Punishment (SIP) performance report that shows significantly lower recidivism rates for the program participants of SIP back to 2005. To increase participation in these effective programs, Act 115/Justice Reinvestment was passed in 2019. DOC expanded the SIP program (now called State Drug Treatment Program) into more institutions, and the savings generated from the inmates going through the program (as a result of their reduced stay in prison and not receiving parole supervision) will be reinvested into county probation programs, sentencing, and victim services.     

PA Heart & Soul creates residentially driven plans that guide future town planning. the Paths to PennDOT Workshops initiative to assist disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs) in learning about PennDOT and how to secure future contracting opportunities. The Mentor Protégé Program (MPP) to increase diversity and participation in the DBE Program through outreach to underserved and underrepresented companies. MPP directly addresses PennDOT’s 2018 Disparity Study findings. Governor’s Commissions on African American Affairs, Asian American and Pacific Islander Affairs, Latino Affairs, LGBTQ Affairs, Women, and Next Generation Engagement, with leading and respected executive directors and more than 120 commissioners appointed by the Governor, help in making state government accountable and responsive to the needs of historically underserved communities by advising the Governor, Cabinet, and all agencies under the Governor’s jurisdiction on policies, legislation, and programs to advance the status of those communities.

The Pennsylvania Governor has the following priorities: creating economic opportunity; investing in infrastructure; making government work for you; lowering costs for families; creating opportunity in schools; investing in safer communities for all; ensuring the justice system works; safeguarding our land, water, and air; supporting Pennsylvania farmers; expanding access to healthcare; and holding corporations accountable. Each of these priorities has goals still in development this early in the current administration. These will have performance measures tracked on the state’s open data platform. One such way to trace the progress of accomplishments and outcomes is through the Governor’s Executive Budget Program Measures platform where key program measures for each agency, commission, office, etc. are tracked.