How well are we ensuring that children are getting a high-quality public education? Are we doing what’s needed to foster a strong business climate? How much progress are we making on reducing greenhouse gas emissions?
Gov. Jay Inslee today formally launched Results Washington, which will provide faster and easier answers to those questions and access to an unprecedented array of performance data related to his top goals.
Once fully in place, Results Washington will make it easier than ever for state leaders to spot trends and make data-driven decisions that improve quality and speed up service delivery. It will lead to better-informed budget and policy decisions. It will also make it possible for Washingtonians to see for themselves how well state government and its many partners — such as school districts, local governments and community organizations — deliver services and meet key performance goals.
“Taxpayers expect and deserve to see results from their government,” Inslee said. “Results Washington will give us the data we need to learn from what is working, fix what’s broken and direct resources to our most important priorities.”
Washington has long been a national leader in adapting proven private-sector methods and tools to measure and improve state government performance. Results Washington combines the best aspects of those efforts with a significantly expanded Lean management culture throughout state government.
Results Washington will include higher-level goals than previously set to gauge how the state as a whole demonstrates progress.
“I set our standards high because it’s what our children and our families deserve,” Inslee said. “Even if we don’t achieve all those goals right away, our efforts will bring us closer to success.”
Results Washington will gather, review and display performance data in five overarching goal areas:
- World-Class Education
- Prosperous Economy
- Sustainable Energy and a Clean Environment
- Healthy and Safe Communities
- Efficient, Effective and Accountable Government
Over the past few months, the administration identified dozens of outcome measures and leading indicators for each goal area. In the World-Class Education goal area, for example, one proposed outcome measure focuses on increasing the percentage of K-12 students who “score proficient or better on statewide exams and graduate college- and career-ready from high school.” And under the Healthy and Safe Communities goal area, one proposed key measure focuses on decreasing poverty rates for children and adults.
Using the latest technology, agencies will regularly upload data for outcome measures and leading indicators. Once the tool — called GovStat — is fully phased in, the updated data will be displayed on the Results Washington web portal.
Results Washington will also include a new state government Lean fellowship program. A team of agency Lean management experts — one assigned to each goal area — will work with private-sector partners and goal councils to develop cross-agency plans for improving performance outcomes.
Inslee will also meet regularly with the Results Washington team to review data and discuss improvement plans, covering one goal area per month on a rotating basis. This data will inform his policy and budget recommendations.
Inslee invites the public to participate in a one-hour Twitter town hall Thursday, Sept. 12 from 10-11 a.m. to ask questions and share ideas about the proposed goals and performance measures detailed at www.results.wa.gov. People can follow the town hall at @GovInslee and use #ResultsWA to ask questions.