Assessing excellence poorly: The bottom line in local government

Methods and outcomes of local governments' assessments of service excellence were examined in a meta-analysis of 261 citizen surveys administered during the last ten years to more than 200,000 U.S. residents who were intended to represent over 30 million Americans. Evaluations of local government services were calculated for good and bad assessment procedures. While assessment methods were poor whether or not applied by outside consultants, good survey methods tended to provide the same account of service delivery as did bad survey methods. Despite the meager correlation of method with outcome, improvement of assessment methods was recommended as a necessary, albeit insufficient, step in raising the enthusiasm of public administrators for meaningful outcome measures.