Accelerating Results for Black Males: A Resource Guide for Promise Neighborhoods

The first in a series to help communities promote black male achievement, this resource guide provides tools for Promise Neighborhoods to systematically evaluate and respond to the particular needs of black male children. The paper identifies essential data to collect, suggests data sources, provides steps to structuring performance management systems, and offers a results-based framework for using data to plan and implement effective strategies.

• Black males often have distinct needs that reflect the particular challenges they face; therefore, collecting appropriate data on black males is essential to assessing and responding to their needs. Tweet
• Voices of residents, youth, and community-based organizations add value to data by explaining the story behind the numbers and raising issues that may have been overlooked. Tweet
• Using performance management systems can enhance capacity to evaluate impact; most Promise Neighborhoods use Social Solutions' Efforts to Outcomes software to manage individual-level data and the Results Leadership Group's Promise Scorecard software to monitor aggregate-level data. Tweet
• A results-based accountability framework begins with identifying a desired result, then selecting the corresponding indicator to measure progress towards that result, and implementing targeted strategies for turning the curve on that indicator. Tweet