We are an independent data science consultancy focused on applying cutting edge social science to promote social good. We believe that truth and evidence eventually will win the day in policymaking that builds a more just and fair society. For this to happen, advocates, researchers, the media, and policymakers need principled social scientists who can help translate what we know into what we should do.
That’s what we do at Civilytics. We bring our social science toolbox and experience aligning evidence, values, and policy and work with our partners to build the case for a better community, state, and country. Whether its working to highlight evidence-based practices in education that help more students succeed or identifying areas of waste and misuse of funding in the carceral system - we work with partners to bring evidence to bear on the issues that matter to them.
We use the term partner intentionally - we’ve learned so much from our clients and enjoy projects where we can collaborate and explore difficult topics together. Social science is, after all, social!
State agencies, districts, and schools use our work to identify students needing support, evaluate whether interventions are working, and find and implement research-based improvement practices.
Designed and deployed an action-based monitoring system to help schools track student attendance and suspensions in real-time, predict developing inequities, and determine how to take appropriate actions.
Universities and their partners hire us to plan and evaluate new research initiatives, forecast enrollment and retention, and build in-house analytic capacity.
Analyzed student, course, and faculty characteristics and outcomes for a study of a newly launched initiative to build stronger student-faculty relationships.
Governments and civic groups use our work to understand how the money flows, compare spending across jurisdictions and over time, and price out desired programs and services.
Conducted a pilot in 9 communities to evaluate local budgets on critical dimensions related to revenue, expenditures, transparency, public engagement and more.
Nonprofits and journalists work with us to access and understand data on policing, youth and adult detention, carceral spending, and alternatives to incarceration and to build data visualizations and toolkits communicating results.
Served as primary data contractor to help nonprofit track the number of individuals diverted from jail via their services, compare diversions to arrests over time and across police district districts, communicate cost savings from diversions, and build a public-facing dashboard.
We evaluate the strength of research for different child welfare programs; analyze public data on the intersection of child welfare, youth detention, and family poverty; and track spending.
Have helped several groups find and evaluate possible family strengthening interventions, as well as track and compare amount of funds invested in foster care and the legal system vs. family supports and prevention strategies.
We work with grassroots organizations and funders to provide high-quality social science research and analysis skills to help movements bring facts and figures to bear on their challenges.
Conduct asset mapping to help grassroots groups identify who to target with what information to win their campaigns.
We consult across sectors on statistical methods, R programming, multilevel modeling, and sustainable analytic infrastructure.
Developed and validated a detailed and thorough literature review on college-access research using Claude Code for portable deployment in a variety of client AI applications.
We've worked on projects expanding access to other public goods like: