It's a way to measure progress toward building and strengthening a culture of learning and improvement.
Achievement and graduation rates are not going to improve if students are not showing up for school. It's an issue that's finally getting a lot of attention.
It's often said that the city has one of the country's highest business tax burdens. But it's really residents and homeowners who are taking the disproportionate tax hit.
Sprawl has obliterated much of our neighborhoods' and communities' social infrastructure. The challenge is finding a new economic model that could turn that around.
When a city's staffers are kept in the loop about new initiatives and policies, they can be powerful allies and messengers.
The Office of Management and Budget's work supporting the implementation of the new health law has been a rigorous process, one that might guide the shaping of other complex government initiatives.
Much of our infrastructure is invisible to its users, and so are some of its costs. Those problems can be addressed in ways that can hold down the costs of infrastructure and make it more self-sustaining.
Pressure is building for state and local governments to switch their workers to defined-contribution retirement plans. But defined-benefit plans have advantages that should not be ignored.
Our one-way, hub-and-spoke model for delivering electricity dates back to the days of Thomas Edison. But disruptive technologies are enabling a new model that will transform utilities as we know them.
A comprehensive approach to financial counseling that originated in New York City is spreading across the country. It holds the promise of saving cities money over the long term.
It's expensive, time-consuming and seldom produces the hoped-for results. Municipalities instead should heed the lessons of those that have dealt with tough fiscal times effectively.
By reusing, recycling or composting everything possible, the Canadian city of Edmonton is on its way to reaching the seemingly impossible goal of diverting 90 percent of trash from landfills.
Cities worry a lot about losing talented people, but few of them do much to attract new people. A sales mindset needs to be part of the culture of the community.
Entrepreneurs are busy in our increasingly multicultural urban landscape, but they're not creating many jobs. That could change if we invested in them.
System dynamics was invented a half-century ago to use technology to analyze complex industrial processes. It's got a lot of potential for the public sector.
When the state stopped picking up litter on the highways, Bakersfield, Calif., found a sustainable way to get the job done -- and help the homeless in the bargain.
They are competitive, creative, innovative, resilient and courageous. If those sound like core characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, they are, and we need to build on them.
A city that's growing can spend more money while keeping taxes low. But when the limits of growth are reached, it will need to reinvent itself.
They're serving millions of students, with hundreds of thousands on waiting lists, and enjoy broad public support. So why do they remain so controversial?
As governments move their workers into new kinds of retirement plans, pension organizations are going to have to change a lot about the way they serve their members. They're going to have to learn to be coaches.
In creating its health-benefit exchange under the Affordable Care Act, California has gotten off to an encouraging start
The ways we produce and distribute energy are going to change, with end users empowered much as in the world of computing. What we can't predict is when that will happen.
When people leave a struggling city for its suburbs, they leave behind the costs of public services that were delivered in the past. Regional solutions are needed.
Drug use by youth varies by geography, gender age and race, and it changes over time. Many of our school-based prevention programs don't reflect those realities.
America shouldn't settle for infrastructure that gets a grade of D-plus. There are steps we can take right now to build the infrastructure we need.
A new rating system aims to build sustainability considerations into the entire infrastructure process, from planning to implementation.
Merging jurisdictions to reduce costs seems like a good idea, but it's fraught with difficulty. The real potential for efficiency lies in sharing services.
The direction the agency takes under its next chairman will have major implications for governments, for growth and for innovation.
When teams of talented university students take on difficult contemporary issues, impressive things happen.
Excellent tools are available to monitor energy use across a community. Isn't it time for cities to be benchmarked against each other?
Governments are beginning to look at energy and other life-cycle costs in their purchasing. It's about more than saving money.
