On Our Radar - January 4, 2018

Great resources and ideas from around the web, updated weekly.

• Software For The Social Good: Where Are The Analysts? via Government Technology (h/t Results for America): More data are now available to inform policy, and there are excellent tools for analysis, many of them free -- but most local governments still don’t have access to the right talent to take advantage.
• Can An Algorithm Tell When Kids Are In Danger? via the New York Times: Pittsburgh is trying a new algorithm to classify a family’s level of risk when a call comes in about potential abuse or neglect -- and striving to address concerns about opacity, bias, and civil liberties.
• AERA Announces Most Read Education Research Articles Of 2017 via AERA: AERA’s 10 most popular journal articles of 2017 take on topics ranging from student loan aversion to kindergarten readiness to the state of research on the Common Core.
• Data Organization In Spreadsheets via The American Statistician: Some basic but still essential advice on how to set up spreadsheets that work for storing data.
• Exploring the Tensions Between Nonprofits and Foundations About Evaluation via AEA: Several reasons “why funders may resist more honest conversations with nonprofits about evaluation and data.”