One of APDU?s main goals is to help foster data literacy by bringing together producers of government/public data with users of the data via the APDU weekly newsletter; APDU?s Public Data University; and APDU?s annual conference. At this year?s annual conference there will be a panel discussion on Enhancing Data Literacy where panelists from the University of Arizona, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Connecticut Data Collaborative will share how they are trying to help users become more knowledgeable about the data at their fingertips. Read this blog post from APDU Treasurer Mauricio Ortiz on the importance of data literacy and where you can improve your or your customers? understanding and appreciation of data.
Commission Releases Final Report Members of the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking have released the Commission?s final report and recommendations. The final report, required by the Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission Act of 2016 (P.L. 114-140), was unanimously agreed to by the Members of the Commission. Under the law, the Commission?s charge was to study how to increase the availability and use of data in order to build evidence about government programs, while protecting privacy and confidentiality.
The 2020 census will be crucial in determining how hundreds of billions of federal dollars are divided among states and local areas in the years ahead for programs that help cover costs such as highway construction, food stamps and health care for the elderly and the poor. Census data provide the bedrock on which formulas are based for distributing certain federal funds. An analysis released recently underscores the extent to which this is the case.
The Center for Data Innovation spoke with Alex Wirth, co-founder of Quorum, a public affairs software company based in Washington, D.C. Wirth discussed the value of combining data about legislative activity with policymakers? social media data, as well as the challenges involved in building a business around legislative data.
Join this webinar for more information on the third training program in Applied Data Analytics for Public Policy, which is scheduled to begin October 11. The program is an Exec Ed style class, with four modules, each with a duration of three days, and includes team work on a hands-on project with administrative data.. The first two courses of the program engaged over 100 individuals from state, local and federal agencies ? with terrific results. The upcoming third course will focus on high need populations, specifically using individual level data on income, welfare benefit programs, prison admissions and exits, and housing program participation. Visit the training program webpage to view more information and apply to the program.
Income, poverty and health insurance statistics for 2016 from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, known as CPS ASEC, will be released Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017. One-year statistics from the 2016 American Community Survey will be released on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017. Due to differences in how the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey collect income data, the national statistics from these two sources will not be identical.
Michigan Makes Strides on Training Provider Data States are striving to improve data collection and reporting on education programs and training providers to help job seekers and political leaders identify which programs are most likely to lead to good jobs. States also need this information to meet requirements under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). In order to be eligible for WIOA funding, training providers must report metrics on participants? credential attainment and post-program employment outcomes. This brief highlights how Michigan is making progress on training provider reporting.
Visualization of the Week
Hurricane Harvey’s Water Footprint Hurricane Harvey approached the U.S. Gulf coast on August 25, 2017. In the map above, the hurricane’s impact on precipitation and streamflow are shown. Normalized discharge (cubic feet per second) at a selection of U.S. Geological Survey gaging stations impacted by the hurricane is shown in the right panel. Variation in the shape of the hydrographs (right panel) is due to stream size, storm-surge, reservoir operations, and other local conditions, which can impact the effect of precipitation on flow.
Did you work on a great report that you want your colleagues to know about? Just email us and we?ll include it here.
Federal Rulemaking and Calls for Comment
APDU maintains a list of open calls for comment on proposed federal data collections. We periodically alert APDU members to newly added calls for comment. Over the last several weeks, calls for comment on the following proposed data collections were published in the Federal Register (with due date):
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Telephone Point of Purchase Survey(September 30, 2017)
Census Bureau
2017-2019 Business Research and Development Surveys (November 6, 2017)
National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
Survey of Public Attitudes Toward and Understanding of Science and Technology (October 2, 2017)
