ABSTRACT
The future of assessment must include a focus on knowledge dissemination, improved tools and processes, and the development of linkages between assessment and resource allocation. Structured organizational assessment processes provide a way for government organizations to examine and understand their current operations, to determine their strengths and opportunities for improvement, to prioritize their efforts, and to measure their level of progress toward improvement goals. Government agencies at the federal, state, and local level routinely engage in planning and budgeting processes that rely on outcome data and performance measures to gauge their success in providing services. To make assessment processes attractive to and viable for federal, state, and local government organizations and other public agencies that could benefit from their use, they must be perceived as applicable. Efforts to link the outcomes of assessment processes to strategic planning and future budgets have not always been successful, but establishing links between those processes may be the key to institutionalizing assessment efforts.
