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Local Budgets and the Forces that Shape Them: Implications for Equity

Local government budgeting fundamentally shapes service delivery and equity, yet systematic attention to how institutional constraints and transparency practices influence public participation remains limited. This report asks: How do legal, fiscal, capacity, and social constraints influence the design, presentation, and equity potential of municipal budgets in the United States? We conducted a comprehensive analysis of...

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The Landscape of Local Government Budgets

This memo provides a descriptive overview of public budgeting across U.S. local governments, assessing the challenge of understanding how thousands of municipalities and counties allocate hundreds of billions of dollars each year. It describes the scale, structure, and common practices of revenue collection, expenditure categories, and budget processes among city and county governments. Drawing on...

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Education Data Done Right

Three-volume book series (Volumes 1, 2, and 3) covering the elements critical to success in building data capacity in education agencies. Written by agency analysts, for agency analysts.

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K–12 Education

Uncovering Wisconsin's hidden fifth largest school district

Working with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's Education for Homeless Children and Youth team, we found that students experiencing homelessness — grouped together — would constitute the state's fifth-largest school district.

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Equity Analysis at a Large Scale: Using Small Area Estimation to Get the Most from the CRDC School Arrest Data

In the CRDC, the most common district arrest count is zero — and classical intervals around a rare rate are too wide to compare student groups within districts with. We fit ten Bayesian hierarchical models and show that small area estimation makes those comparisons possible.

Part of the Equity Analysis at a Large Scale series

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Building an Accurate Statewide Dropout Early Warning System in Wisconsin

Article in the Journal of Educational Data Mining describing the Wisconsin Dropout Early Warning System (DEWS), a predictive model of student dropout risk for students in grades 6-9. Explains how DEWS' publicly available software modules can be applied to new data and outcomes.

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Effect of English Proficiency Classification on Student Outcomes: Evidence from Wisconsin

Article in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (Carlson & Knowles, 2016) examining English Language Learner reclassification policies using a regression discontinuity framework. Finds that being reclassified as fully English proficient has positive effects on Wisconsin students' ACT scores, high school graduation, and postsecondary enrollment.

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School Boards and the Democratic Promise

Examines the degree of democratic control communities exercise over school boards through elections, combining election results for Wisconsin school districts with administrative records on local conditions.

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Public Finance

Civilytics’ analysis uncovers $5 billion inequality in aid program for 100M Americans

Analysis revealing how a 5-word change in ARPA's Non-Entitlement Unit aid formula shifted $5 billion in federal aid for 100 million Americans — and triggered a Treasury comment process that ultimately corrected the allocation.

Part of the ARPA Local Aid Analysis series

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Budget Analysis and Training Data Analysis and Reporting

ARPA Fiscal Recovery Funds

Comprehensive guide to the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Program (SLFRP) authorized by ARPA — overview of the $350 billion program, plus detailed FAQs on eligible uses across public health, premium pay, revenue loss, and infrastructure, and on terms, conditions, restrictions, and recoupment.

Read Treasury's Interim Final Rule (PDF)

Policing and Corrections

New dashboard visualizes scope of prison gerrymandering, points to opportunities for change

A new dashboard created for the Tableau Racial Equity Data Hub examines prison gerrymandering across states. Prison gerrymandering is the practice of counting incarcerated people where they are imprisoned for the purpose of redistricting.

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How to Take Back the Budget

Free guide to help communities review and change the police budget in their city or county. Produced in collaboration with the Community Resource Hub. Provides practical steps to translate public budget jargon into real-world information.

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Policing the American University

First-ever look at the staffing levels and arrest patterns of the 877+ campus police departments operating in the United States. Combines FBI Uniform Crime Report data with U.S. Department of Education records. Paired with a Campus Policing Toolkit for community-led conversations about local policing.

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Data Science and AI

5 Steps You Can Take to Defend Your Data

A 5-step guide to advocating with data, co-created with Tableau. Practical steps for community advocates and researchers who face higher data-defense burdens than other users.

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Prison Gerrymandering on Reveal

Podcast from the national radio show Reveal featuring analysis from Civilytics on prison gerrymandering in Wisconsin, which distorts communities' political representation because of residential segregation and disparities in incarceration.

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