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September 2013Vol. 14, No. 7Using Data to Improve Outcomes

The National Resource Center for Child Welfare Data and Technology (NRC-CWDT), in collaboration with several child welfare data managers in the field, developed a framework to help agencies better work with data in order to inform practice and performance and improve child welfare outcomes. The tool is intended to help agencies refine their data-collection process and focus their efforts so that the data collected are more useful and easily incorporated into business processes.

The framework consists of five areas of discussion that provide users with do's and don'ts, important questions to ask along the process, and concrete examples to consider. The areas of discussion lead users through steps from identifying the area of focus, to selecting data and measures and building tools using the data, to defining the business process and monitoring progress. The framework also links each area of discussion to more relevant information and tools available on the NRC-CWDT website, such as checklists to help define key concepts and questions and to help incorporate data into practice and business processes.

To learn more about the tool, read "Framework for Managing With Data: An Overview" on NRC-CWDT's website:

http://www.nrccwdt.org/2013/07/framework-for-managing-with-data-an-overview/