Moving forward without looking back: Performance management systems as real-time evidence-based practice tools Scottye J. Cash a, ⁎, Stephanie D. Ingram c , Denise S. Biben b , Shann J. McKeever b , Ronald W. Thompson c , Jared Z. Ferrell d a College of Social Work, The Ohio State University, 1947 College Rd, Columbus, OH, United States b Program Fidelity, Father Flanagan's Boys' Home, Boys Town, NE, United States c National Research Institute, Father Flanagan's Boys' Home, Boys Town, NE, United States d Psychology Department, University of Akron, Akron, OH, United States abstract article info Article history: Received 10 September 2011 Received in revised form 8 December 2011 Accepted 8 December 2011 Available online 16 December 2011 Keywords: Dashboards Program evaluation Model fidelity In-home services Performance management systems provide child welfare agencies with tools to monitor program components, make real-time changes, and build an empirical base for the intervention. The two primary components of the performance management system discussed in this paper are balanced scorecards and dashboards. The goal is to provide an overview of the process, to describe how a performance management system was developed and the rationale behind it, and to provide examples of how the process was implemented at a national and site level. The paper provides an overview of performance management systems and an example of how perfor- mance management tools can be applied to child welfare agencies. These tools can assist in planning and quality improvement and can be used to support the ongoing development of an empirical base for service programs. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Over the last two decades, there has been a significant movement towards establishing an evidence-base to support whether a particu- lar service or program has the desired effects on certain problems and/or with certain populations. One of the challenges of establishing this evidence-base is the amount of resource and time it takes to ob- tain feedback on what works. Service program evaluations often focus on data from a program from the prior year or two, and the feedback loop on making program improvements may be nonexistent. While this “rearview mirror” approach may ultimately contribute to an em- pirical base, through randomized controlled trials, a gap exists in how to move programs forward ensuring that programs incorporate evidence-informed practices, are implemented based on a strategic plan, incorporate feedback loops, and incrementally add to the pro- gram's empirical base (McCue Horwitz, Chamberlain, Landsverk, & Mullican, 2010; Ryan & Schuerman, 2004). Today's technological resources and business models on organiza- tional improvement are essential to taking our social service program models to the next level (Chorpita, Bernstein, & Daleiden, 2008; Eckerson, 2011; Kaplan & Norton, 1992; McCue Horwitz et al., 2010; Pecora, Seelig, Zirps, & Davis, 1996). Given these advancements it is possible to capitalize on the opportunities to use real-time knowledge of progress both within and across social service programs. This knowledge can be used to generate an ongoing feedback loop. Perfor- mance management systems are one tool that organizations and pro- grams can use where they glance in the rearview mirror, but continually look forward to make real-time changes and progress. Utilizing performance management systems within social services provides a framework to ensure that the organization's strategy is exe- cuted successfully and outcomes are in the intended direction with variances managed. Performance management systems become a crit- ical component of organizational vision/management and can serve multiple purposes. For example, at the practitioner level, the data from the system can help practitioners understand the impact their work has on their clients, or in other words, build an evidence base that guides decision making. For management, the data can be aggre- gated across sites and used to determine how the organization is pro- gressing on its strategic plan, identifying the most feasible practices and deploy from there how variance were achieved or addressed. This information can be communicated, in a single frame of reference, across an organization via dashboards that monitor operational processes. Scorecards can also be used to monitor strategic goals by creating a pro- cess that identifies the organization strategy, assists in planning on how to implement the overarching goals, is capable of monitoring and ana- lyzing the ongoing data, and creates a mechanism to act and/or adjust strategies so they better reflect the intended goals (Eckerson, 2011). Specifically, performance management systems enable strategic com- munication and refinement, while increasing visibility and coordination to stakeholders with information that can be acted upon quickly Children and Youth Services Review 34 (2012) 655–659 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: cash.33@osu.edu (S.J. Cash). 0190-7409/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.12.008 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Children and Youth Services Review journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth