What Did We Stop Questioning in Digital Government Delivery? Let’s see what rules we can rewrite and beliefs we can reset: a few digital service sacred cows are long overdue to be put out to pasture.

The problem with sacred cows isn't that they existed – it's that they have taken on new life as facts, even as the world changes around them.

@merici.bsky.social takes on the sacred cows of digital government delivery, and what we can win if we put them out to pasture.
fas.org/publication/...

is distracted driving a problem? yes! is this quality evidence that you should avoid getting in your car when taylor swift's 13th album inevitably drops? probably not.

your alarm bells should *always* go up when you read about ginormous effect sizes like this. in this case, the study looks at a pretty small number of album release days (10) and finds an increase of 18.2 fatalities nationwide on those days. I don't find that particularly convincing!

The Civic Research Agenda - Federation of American Scientists The Civic Research Agenda is the first comprehensive reporting on the priority research needs of American cities and counties.

Universities think they're too nerdy for city hall.
City hall thinks they're not nerdy enough for universities.

Meanwhile, communities wait for solutions.

The new Civic Research Agenda report digs into what's stalling the research-to-impact pipeline — and how to fix it.
fas.org/initiative/c...

she’s a 10 but Excel thinks she’s October

What’s Next for Federal Evidence-Based Policymaking - Federation of American Scientists Decision-makers relied upon the more than 1,000 federal advisory committees that provided expert advice and insights. Most recently, the 2018 Evidence-Based Policymaking Act sought to catalyze movemen...

More broadly, I'd love to get your thoughts on the post I have up this morning on next steps for the evidence-based policymaking movement!

fas.org/publication/...

Screenshot from APPAM program describing living evidence session to be hosted Saturday, November 15 at 1:45pm

Attending #2025APPAM? Come check out my session this Saturday where I'm partnering with colleagues to talk about the future role of evidence synthesis and AI in powering better policy- and decision-making.

(disclaimer: I'm not an economist! just a policy person who reads a lot of research 😅)

I feel like the overall evidence on co-requisite education is pretty mixed, and there's a lot of variation in how these programs are designed/implemented. So hard to say if these results would replicate! Jill Barshay did a good write up on this a few years ago hechingerreport.org/proof-points...

cuny asap, of course! www.mdrc.org/work/publica...

but on your second question, I think this paper on co-requisite math/stats courses is interesting. they suggest that the earnings impact that they find is driven by reduced time to degree. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/...

also worth noting that TX-18, a heavily democratic district, has been without a rep since January...

This is illegal. www.gao.gov/blog/what-po...

A Texas Congressman Is Quietly Helping Elon Musk Pitch a $760M Plan to Build Tunnels Under Houston to Ease Flooding For years, experts in Houston have been studying the idea of building massive tunnels to divert floodwaters and save lives and property. Now Elon Musk’s tunneling company wants a piece of the project.

Rep. Wesley Hunt has spent months trying to get officials to hire Elon Musk’s The Boring Co. to build a major flood control project in Houston. The company has pitched tunnels that are far smaller than what may be needed to address the flooding issues.🤔
@lmcgaughy.bsky.social @chengyilun.bsky.social

Trump’s new chief design officer aims to make federal websites ‘satisfying’ Joe Gebbia, an Elon Musk ally who also worked for DOGE, said navigating dot-gov websites should be just as easy as visiting the Apple Store.

Truly wild that this entire story doesn't mention the fact that DOGE nuked USDS and 18F, which actually did this work for years. Including online passport renewal and the creation of Direct File to make filing taxes easier! www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Ever since the former commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics was dismissed by the Trump administration in February, I wanted to hear her story. Peggy Carr was among a string of Black senior officials fired in early 2025. (1/3)

Posted in the State Department. The resistance always grows. Tomorrow there will be more of us.

It’s true, FEMA doesn’t serve people as well as it should. But it’s also clear that in large part the tragedy unfolding in Central Texas was exacerbated by a failure of local and state officials’ response. So why should Texans trust those same people to manage their recovery?

for my #edusky people, highly recommend this resource the HEDCO institute just dropped that is tracking research on four-day school weeks (and all their research dashboards!): hedcoinstitute.uoregon.edu/dashboards/f...

real bummer finding out that literally everything was on the honor system this whole time

Yesterday, June 2, was an interesting day at work. I was reporting a story about how the Education Department hadn't delivered a report to Congress on the Condition of Education, despite the June 1 deadline mandated by law. 🧵 (1/9)

Harvard researchers find evidence that Skew The Script boosts AP Stats scores — Skew The Script A research group at Harvard found evidence that Skew The Script lessons had a causal impact on AP Stats scores across Texas…

A blast from my past: New evidence on the program Skew the Script finds promising impact of the curriculum on AP test scores. This resource helped me bring Beyonce, influencer salary, and food deserts into the conversation into my math classroom! skewthescript.org/blog/harvard...
#edusky #mathsky

Trump’s new ‘gold standard’ rule will destroy American science as we know it | Colette Delawalla The new executive order allows political appointees to undermine research they oppose, paving the way to state-controlled science

Delighted to see this piece with Victor Ambros, @carlbergstrom.com, Carol Greider, @michaelemann.bsky.social, and @briannosek.bsky.social in the wild.

Trump’s new ‘gold standard’ rule will destroy American science as we know it

@standupforscience.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The MAHA Report Cites Studies That Don’t Exist The Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” report misinterprets some studies and cites others that don’t exist, according to the listed authors.

The Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” report misinterprets some studies and cites others that don’t exist, according to the listed authors

Exactly what we’ve been SCREAMING about since this whole mess started. This was inevitable. It’s not fault of the office itself. It’s entirely the fault of the current administration.

Why I’m Resigning from the NSF and Library of Congress I cannot participate in systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging.

"For me, the answer now lies in refusal, the withdrawal of participation from systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging."

Today I am resigning from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council.

I wrote about my decision in TIME.

time.com/7285045/resi...

Getting ‘What Works’ in Education into Teachers' Hands Living evidence still has a path forward in the U.S, and opportunities to continue to grow along with the growing global movement.

And you can read more thoughts from me about why this report holds more salience than ever in the current circumstances here: fas.org/publication/...

You can read more about how we propose IES use this innovative model to bring evidence-based practice to those who need it, when they need it here: fas.org/wp-content/u...

IES’s mission is to equip teachers, school leaders, parents, and more with the tools backed by rigorous research that might help them do their jobs best. Living evidence is an approach that supports bringing knowledge to communities faster, better, and more efficiently.