Managing toward Evidence: State-Level Evidence-Based Policymaking and the Results First Initiative

In 2010, the Pew Charitable Trusts and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation launched an initiative called Results First to help states and local governments better incorporate evidence into their policy, budget, and management-related decision-making. This article reviews the early results and lessons of Results First by summarizing the initiative and the current level of evidence use in the states, describing political and administrative obstacles that have complicated similar efforts, and discussing how Results First is addressing them. I conclude that rational, top-down policymaking by elected officials is taking place in states and that Results First appears to be having some success in helping to make policy decisions better informed. I also argue, though, that Results First may be having an even greater effect by encouraging evidence-based management among appointed officials and non-policymaking civil servant managers, and that this may help evidence-based policy avoid some of the pitfalls that have undermined previous efforts at government reform.