Hello everyone,

I'm presently writing a paper about the challenges facing users and
producers of education data in the United States.  The goal of the paper is
to describe some of the reasons why policymakers, school officials, and
parents do not always have the kind of education data they need or would
like to have.

I was hoping to incorporate some comparisons to other policy areas (in the
US and other countries, even) and wanted to ask list members this question:
Can you think of a policy area where data systems used to be quite weak
(fragmented, not user-friendly, unreliable from year to year, etc.) but
after much effort to improve things now there is basically consensus that
things are really quite good?  In other words, data systems that used to not
talk with each other are now well integrated; data are now available in a
timely and user-friendly manner; policymakers can trust that the data they
have are accurate?

I'm happy to hear examples that come from pieces you've read or written, and
from your own personal experiences in the scholarly and policy worlds,
including experiences at any level of government.

Thanks much,
Paul




Paul Manna
Assistant Professor
Department of Government
Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy
College of William and Mary

http://pmanna.people.wm.edu/
tel: 757-221-3024 / fax: 757-221-1868