Robert Goerge

Senior Research Fellow

Dr. Robert Goerge is a Chapin Hall Senior Research Fellow with more than 25 years’ experience in research focused on improving the available data and information on children and families, particularly those who require specialized services related to maltreatment, disability, poverty, or violence. Goerge leads Chapin Hall’s Integrated Database on Child and Family Programs in Illinois, which links the administrative data on social service receipt, education, criminal and juvenile justice, employment, healthcare, and early childhood programs to provide a comprehensive picture of child and family use of publicly provided or publicly financed service programs. His work provides high-quality information to policymakers to improve the programs serving children and their families. At Chapin Hall, he is Principal Investigator (PI) for the Family Self-Sufficiency Data Center, funded by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; PI of the Linking Federal Data to Local Data project, which is a collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau; and PI of the National Survey for Early Care and Education. He is also cochair and cofounder of the International Society for Child Indicators.

In addition to his Chapin Hall work, Goerge is a Senior Fellow at the Computation Institute, where he was co-PI on a NSF-funded grant entitled, “An Urban Sciences Research Coordination Network for Data-Driven Urban Design and Analysis.” He is the founder of the Master’s Degree on Computational Analysis and Public Policy at the University of Chicago. He has been a Member of the Panel on Data and Methods for Measuring the Effects of Changes in Social Welfare Programs and the Panel on Modernizing Crime Statistics of the National Academy of Sciences, and a Technical Work Group member of the National Study of Child and Adolescent Well-Being.

Goerge received his Master of Arts and PhD in Social Policy from the University of Chicago.

Master of Arts in Social Policy, University of Chicago
PhD in Social Policy, University of Chicago

Allard, S. W., Wiegand, E. R., Schlecht, C., Datta, A. R., Goerge, R. M., & Weigensberg, E. (2018). State agencies’ use of administrative data for improved practices: Needs, challenges, and opportunities. Public Administration Review, 78(2), 240-250.

Goerge, R. M. (2018). Barriers to accessing state data and approaches to addressing them. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 675(1), 122-137.

Key Work

Key Work

Project
Promoting Sustainable Data Use in State Programs
A new toolkit helps public sector agencies build the culture and infrastructure to apply data analysis routinely, effectively, and accurately
July 28, 2023
News
Study of Chicago Scholars Program Will Measure Impact and Outline Cost to Replicate
Chapin Hall is conducting a five-year randomized controlled study of Chicago Scholars, the largest college access and success program in Chicago.
May 3, 2023
Report
Exemplary TANF Data Users Show Strong Communication, Collaboration, and Partnerships
This brief discusses accessible strategies to promote the use of data and disseminate analyses so that policymakers can use evidence to improve TANF for...
2022
Report
Illinois Childcare Workers Experienced Employment Interruptions During Early Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic
This report analyzes Illinois employment data through 2020 to better understand the impacts on the childcare labor market in the early days of the pandemic
2022
Report
Expanding Data Use and Evidence in the TANF Program: Identifying Strengths and Areas for Growth Across the U.S.
This brief summarizes the national landscape of how TANF agencies use data and identifies areas of success and opportunities for growth.
2021
Report
Finding Effective Strategies to Expand Data Use in State Human Service Agencies
This paper discusses successes and failures in working with state and local human service agencies and researchers to compile administrative data sources that...
2020
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