Tennessee Recognized as a Leading State for Data-Driven and Evidence-Based Policymaking

NASHVILLE – Tennessee is named today as one of eight states leading the nation in using evidence and data to deliver better results for Tennesseans. In a virtual event, Results for America highlighted Tennessee for work led by the Office of Evidence and Impact in the Department of Finance and Administration.

“The Volunteer State is leading the nation with data-driven decisions to secure economic and educational opportunity for every Tennessean,” Governor Bill Lee  said. “I thank the Office of Evidence and Impact for its work to ensure we steward state dollars responsibly and effectively to serve Tennessee well.”

Tennessee is recognized for using evidence and data to protect the health and safety of residents, accelerate the state’s economic recovery and increase the impact of state investments.

“In this year’s State Standard of Excellence, we saw a significant acceleration of efforts by state leaders across the country to build evidence and use it to invest in what works,” Michele Jolin, CEO and Co-Founder of Results for America said. “States are investing their own funds as well as federal funds to build and strengthen their evidence and data capacity and investing in evaluations to help ensure they are delivering the best results for their residents.”

Tennessee received honors from Results for American In 2020 and 2021 as one of the leading states in the nation for using data to make decisions. OEI Director Christin Lotz was selected in 2020 to serve on the Federal Advisory Committee on Data for Evidence Building, which makes recommendations to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on how to improve data sharing and data linkage.

Results for America is a national nonprofit promoting evidence-based policymaking. The 2022 Invest in What Works State Standard of Excellence is an annual report that assesses how states are building and using data and evidence to drive budget, policy, and management decisions. This year’s Standard of Excellence identified 263 examples of data-driven and evidence-based practices, policies, programs, and systems (an increase of 61 from 2021) in 41 states across the country (an increase of five states from 2021). For more information about how states are building their data and evidence capacity, visit Results for America’s 2022 Invest in What Works State Standard of Excellence.

For more information about evidence-based budgeting, the framework for evaluating state programs or to meet the Office of Evidence and Impact team, visit their website at  https://www.tn.gov/finance/oei.html