Slow to Change

Ezra Klein has a nice short post quoting an academic involved in developing "metrics" to measure the effectiveness of government programs. This is all to0 sadly true:

Many academics--myself included--have participated in efforts to produce these numbers. GPRA- measures are quite valuable to document that you have done the work, and to characterize the populations an intervention serves. These measures do not provide the kind of program evaluation information policymakers really need to understand which programs are most effective or cost-effective. Funders generally require too many numbers and reports, which have a way of being collected in a nice binder that sits on a shelf, pleasantly undisturbed.

It's not enough just to count things and measure things, that counting and measuring has to actually mean something, it has to actually have a purpose, and generally speaking for program management purposes, performance information should facilitate better decision-making so that programs and agencies become more effective and efficient. But 250 year-old organizations that face no competition are slow to change.