Government Data Connection
Using data to serve citizens, save money & improve quality of life![To share or not to share? The tightrope of fighting government fraud](https://blogs.sas.com/content/statelocalgov/files/2017/01/Analytics-2.png)
Data. Google uses ours every day, and most people aren't concerned. When our government is looking over our shoulders, however, tensions rise quickly. On the one end lies the recent scandals with the National Security Agency (NSA), which is apparently spying on you, me, and Angela Merkel. On the other lies case after case
![Happy International Fraud Awareness Week - Celebrate With $2 Trillion](https://blogs.sas.com/content/statelocalgov/files/2017/01/FraudSecurity-2.png)
Before that headline really scares you, let me clarify - there hasn't been a single fraud scheme that managed to pull off a $2 trillion haul (yet). However, the fact remains that as rising scams, schemes, the gray market, work under the table and good old tax evasion escalate, as
![Building your teaching playbook](https://blogs.sas.com/content/statelocalgov/files/2017/02/StudentsEducators-4.png)
Like many of you teachers out there, I spent a lot of time recently preparing for the new school year. At home, it began with the therapeutic organization of children's rooms. As I sat amid in outgrown clothes, last year’s school work, and books to donate, I braced myself and
![Beyond value-added: Teachers need diagnostic data to improve their practice](https://blogs.sas.com/content/statelocalgov/files/2013/08/EVAAS-OH-snip.png)
As student growth or value-added measures become more prevalent in educator evaluation systems, many question how those ratings actually help teachers improve their practice. i.e. “How does a level 3 teacher become a level 4 or 5?” Robust and reliable value-added data serve as a great starting point for teachers
![Data integration, holistic view of municipal data can show neighborhoods in decline](https://blogs.sas.com/content/statelocalgov/files/2017/01/Analytics-2.png)
Imagine a business offering a multitude of products and services that seemingly have little relationship to one another, and all are supported by different data systems. This is the plight of local governments. The products and services produced and managed by local governments range from utilities, solid waste and recycling to parks
![Value-added myth busting, Part 4: Value-added models cannot measure growth of students who have missing data or are highly mobile](https://blogs.sas.com/content/statelocalgov/files/2013/05/EVAAS-mythbuster4-Figure1.jpg)
Students with missing test scores are often highly mobile students and are more likely to be low-achieving students. It is important to include these students in any growth/value-added model to avoid selection bias, which could provide misleading growth estimates to districts, schools and teachers that serve higher populations of these