Social Sector Hero Spotlight: U.S. Department of Education Promise Neighborhoods Program

Social Sector Hero Spotlights tell stories of exemplary social and public sector organizations that are making measurable differences in their communities. The following spotlight is an excerpt from “Social Sector Hero – How Government and Philanthropy Can Fund for Impact” by Adam Luecking. You can download the book for free here and read all 16 Social Sector Hero Spotlights. 

October 7, 2022

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education (henceforth referred to as “the Department”) decided to create a new ‘Promise Neighborhoods’ Program. This decision was inspired by the successes of the Harlem Children’s Zone and the Promise Neighborhoods Institute based out of PolicyLink. From the start, Promise Neighborhoods were community-based initiatives meant to surround children in high-quality integrated programming designed around a multifaceted approach to healthy childhood development.

The Department’s new Promise Neighborhoods program would begin providing three cycles of annual funding to support eligible nonprofits, including faith-based organizations, higher education, and Native American Tribes and Organizations. Due to measurable improvements, Congress increased funding appropriation for the Promise Neighborhoods Program from $10 Million in 2010 to $73 Million in 2016.

The Promise Neighborhoods program places high-quality schools, family involvement, and community engagement at the center of its work. Its mission is to ensure that “All children and youth growing up in Promise Neighborhoods have access to great schools and strong systems of family and community support that will prepare them to attain an excellent education and successfully transition to college and a career.” Social Sector Heroes involved in the program aim to achieve this mission through a complete transformation of communities, broken down by the following five areas:

1. Lifting up organizations focused on achieving results for children and families
2. Building ‘cradle-to-career’ solutions with great schools at the center
3. Breaking down silos and creating a support system for integrated programming
4. Developing local infrastructure and systems needed to scale efforts from the neighborhood level
5. Engaging in program evaluation to understand program impact and understand the relationship between program strategies and student outcomes.

The U.S. Department of Education created 15 Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) measures — community Indicators of success that serve as a basis for how all Promise Neighborhoods report on their success. This is another real-world example of using Results and Indicators to orient a social impact journey.

You can view the full list of measures and other useful information about data at SocialSectorHero.com/Resources. I’ve abridged and shared five selected GPRA measures below to give you an idea of the program’s multifaceted approach (e.g. health, neighborhood safety, educational outcomes, family involvement) and integration with childhood development, wellbeing, and success:

1. Number and percentage of three-year-olds and children in kindergarten who demonstrate, at the beginning of the program or school year, age-appropriate functioning across the multiple domains of early learning
2. Number and percentage of children who participate in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily
3. Number and percentage of students who feel safe at school and traveling to and from school, as measured by a school climate needs assessment
4. Number and percentage of parents (or family members) of birth to kindergarten entry-age children who read to their children three or more times a week
5. Number and percentage of students who have school and home access (and percentage of the day they have access) to broadband internet and a connected computing device.

Establishing GPRA metrics helped the Department of Education and all its funded Promise Neighborhoods align with a Common Purpose and create clarity around the purpose of the funding. But creating a list of measures is just the first step. Anyone can create a list of measures. To actually achieve measurable results for communities, funders must create a clearly defined and documented process for continual measurement, reporting, and strategy improvement. In other words, there needs to be a process designed to assure active alignment with goals and measures before, during, and after funding cycles.

The Department understood that sustained alignment and impact on child wellbeing would require a consistent reporting schedule and the use of program performance data to make investment decisions. So, upon piloting the program, they basically told each neighborhood, “We’re going to invest up to $5 million in you… but we’re also going to expect you to report annually on the 15 GPRA measures.” By including program evaluation and impact reporting on measures designed around the five areas of community transformation, the Department could evaluate measurable returns on investments in each of the neighborhoods. 

The Promise Neighborhoods program also understands the power of keeping score of their performance and allowing leaders to see what is going on in real-time on the ground. This transparency in the data has created tremendous impacts on creating and maintaining aligned action. To sustain alignment with and passion for their mission, Promise Neighborhoods provides communities with a standard performance management system to report their data in the form of scorecards. 

Due to aligned performance measurement, action, and accountability, many Promise Neighborhood communities are Turning the Curves on Indicators of wellbeing. Some of these, organized by community, include:

• Delta Health Alliance, Indianola Promise Neighborhood:
  • Increased the four-year adjusted cohort high school graduation rate from 71 percent to 82 percent (2015–2021)
• Delta Health Alliance, Deer Creek Promise Neighborhood:
  • Increased the four-year adjusted cohort high school graduation rate from 87.4 percent to 88.6 percent (2015–2020)
• Hayward Promise Neighborhood:
  • Decreased the chronic absenteeism rate of students in sixth to ninth grade from 12.4 percent to 4 percent (2017–2022)
  • Increased the percentage of kids who feel safe at school, and traveling to and from school from 60.4 percent to 77.7 percent (2019–2022)

• Berea College — Knox Promise Neighborhood:
  • Decreased chronic absenteeism among sixth to ninth graders from 20.1 percent to 17.7 percent (2017–2019).

You can view graphs for these Turned Curves at SocialSectorHero.com/Resources. In Part 2 of this Hero’s Journey Spotlight towards the end of this chapter (Social Sector Hero, Chapter 3), we’ll explore the story and Results of an additional Promise Neighborhoods funded community — the Mission Promise Neighborhood. 

Enjoy this case study? Want to learn more about the strategies Promise Neighborhoods and other organizations are using to achieve measurable, equitable results? Download a free copy of Social Sector Hero today.