This report recommends 21 results and accompanying indicators for Promise Neighborhoods. The authors detail existing key data sources, results, and suggested indicators focused on improving health, development, and education of children.

With estimates predicting that immigrants and their children will account for most of U.S. population growth over the next 4 decades, it is critical to understand how to build ladders of opportunity for these families. This report is a complete assessment of the needs of Langley Park, an immigrant neighborhood outside Washington, DC. Langley Park families are resilient but experience substantial hardships that may stall the progress of subsequent generations. At six crucial life transitions, children lag behind on indicators of future success.

Zone 126 is a nonprofit neighborhood organization in Queens, New York City that was awarded a Promise Neighborhood planning grant from the US Department of Education in 2011. The Urban Institute developed a neighborhood survey for residents of Astoria Houses, a public housing development in the Zone 126 neighborhood, to support Zone 126's needs assessment and planning process. Zone 126 used results from the survey to inform the initiatives family and child-centered programming.

In October 2010, the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) became one of 21 recipients of a US Department of Education Promise Neighborhood planning grant. The Urban Institute partnered with DCPNI to act as the data analyst and local evaluator of this ambitious initiative. The Needs Assessment and Segmentation Analysis are intended to provide a timely understanding of the needs of the community and to inform the continuum of strategies developed by DCPNI and their workgroups.

The DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) is on a mission to end the cycle of intergenerational poverty in Kenilworth-Parkside, a geographically isolated community in Northeast Washington, DC. By partnering with local organizations to provide targeted, data-driven interventions to youth and parents, DCPNI is working to improve educational, economic, health, and socio-emotional outcomes within a community plagued by the effects of concentrated poverty.

This document builds on earlier guidance—basic information on preparing and administering surveys in chapter 7 of the Measuring Performance: A Guidance Document for Promise Neighborhoods on Collecting Data and Reporting Results (referred to here as the Guidance Document)—as well as specific lessons learned from the experiences of Promise Neighborhood implementation grantees to provide practical guidance on how to prepare and manage high quality neighborhood and school surveys.

This guidance document is designed to provide clarity on the U.S. Department of Education’s required Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) indicators. Promise Neighborhood implementation grantees must report on these measures as one of the requirements of their federal funding. In addition, this document recommends data collection strategies, sources, and methods for the Promise Neighborhood community at large, including the collection and tracking of demographic, family, and service delivery characteristics.

This report provides summary guidance on how to review case management data in the context of a Promise Neighborhood’s strategy, particularly its theory of change and results framework. Although written based on experience gained working with Promise Neighborhoods, the guidance here can be adapted to similar place-based and comprehensive change efforts.

The DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) is on a mission to end the cycle of intergenerational poverty in Kenilworth-Parkside, a geographically isolated community in Northeast Washington, DC. By partnering with local organizations to provide targeted, data-driven interventions to youth and parents, DCPNI is working to improve educational, economic, health, and socio-emotional outcomes within a community plagued by the effects of concentrated poverty.

This document describes some of the key issues to be considered in undertaking a comprehensive evaluation of the performance and impact of the Promise Neighborhoods grantees at large. It provides the perspective of organizations who are working at the corner of evaluation and practice—seeking to improve the outcomes for poor children and families and to understand the most effective ways of measuring results.