 What is the Gold Guide?
Who publishes the Gold Guide?
Who are the editors of the Gold Guide?
Who uses the Gold Guide?
How is the Gold Guide used?
Where did the idea of the Gold Guide come from?
How is the Gold Guide different from other ranking publications?
How were the rankings contained in the Gold Guide selected?
How were the Gold Guide’s “Best of the Best” rankings calculated?
What is the value of the Gold Guide’s consensus-based
technique?
What is the limitation of the Gold Guide’s consensus-based technique?
What other features does the Gold Guide offer?
How long did it take to create the Gold Guide?
How do I get a ranking published in the next edition of the Gold Guide?
How much does the Gold Guide cost?
How do I order the Gold Guide?
Q: WHAT IS THE GOLD GUIDE?
The Gold Guide is the definitive reference source
for city and state rankings, and a powerful new tool
for understanding and improving America’s communities.
It’s the only publication in the country that compiles
and analyzes hundreds of rankings and presents them in
a format that policymakers and others can use to learn
how their communities are doing -- and how to make
them better.
The compiled rankings are organized into eleven topical
chapters covering all major dimensions of society: Business
Climate, Education, Quality of Life, Public Safety,
Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Environment, Technology,
Health and Welfare, Infrastructure, Government, and
Economic Dynamism. Click here to download a PDF that includes more information about this.
The rankings in these chapters come from a broad range
of leading institutions, including the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce, National Education Association, Brookings
Institution, CNN, and scores of others.
In addition to the compiled rankings, the Gold Guide
also contains its own “Best of the Best”
rankings, which offer unprecedented insight into the
performance of America’s cities and states, and
a number of additional features outlined further below.
return to list of questions
Q: WHO PUBLISHES THE GOLD GUIDE?
The Gold Guide is published by NPRC Press, the publishing
division of NPRC. The guide is the inaugural publication
of NPRC’s new Government Performance Council.
return to list of questions
Q. WHO ARE THE EDITORS OF THE GOLD GUIDE?
The Gold Guide has two executive editors who oversee
its production: Jonathan D. Weiss and Spencer L. Tracy,
Jr.
Mr. Weiss is senior counsel with SRS Technologies of
Arlington, Virginia, and an adjunct professor of law at George
Washington University Law School. He previously served
as executive director of the GW Center on Sustainable
Growth. Weiss has traveled to and worked with dozens
of communities across the United States. During the
Clinton Administration he served in the Environmental
Protection Agency and as advisor to Vice President Al
Gore on sustainable growth issues. He is a graduate
of the University of Virginia Law School and holds M.A.
and B.A. degrees from the University of Michigan. Mr. Weiss
has been featured frequently on National Public Radio
and has published widely in journals, magazines, and
newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Tracy is the director of the National Policy Research
Council’s Office of Research and Development.
He meets frequently with city and state officials from
across the country and supervises the development of
NPRC’s product and service offerings. Previously,
he was a research fellow at the GW Center on Sustainable
Growth. He holds degrees in economics (M.S.), law (J.D.),
and history (B.A.) from the London School of Economics,
George Washington University Law School, and Louisiana
State University, respectively. Mr. Tracy has written for
academic and popular periodicals and is an expert in
city and state performance assessment and benchmarking
practices.
return to list of questions
Q: WHO USES THE GOLD GUIDE?
The Gold Guide is used by top-level decision-makers across a broad institutional spectrum. They include state and local policymakers, economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, site selection consultants and corporate real estate executives, think tanks and research centers, political candidates, media outlets, professional associations, law firms, lobbying groups, management consulting firms, and many others.
return to list of questions
Q: HOW IS THE GOLD GUIDE USED?
It depends on the reader’s perspective. State
and local policymakers use the Gold Guide to quickly
and accurately assess where their city or state stands
at a specific point in time in relation to other cities
and states and against thousands of measures of performance
across eleven core policy and service areas.
Economic development organizations use the guide to
pinpoint their communities’ competitive advantages
and disadvantages, which in turn helps them to focus
their efforts and resources on those activities that
generate the greatest returns on investment.
Chambers of commerce, municipal leagues, and convention
and visitors bureaus use the publication to develop
effective marketing and promotional campaigns.
Site selection consultants and corporate real estate
executives enlist the Gold Guide to identify the best
places to locate companies and corporate assets.
return to list of questions
Q: WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR THE GOLD GUIDE COME FROM?
NPRC conducted a year-long needs assessment among
state and local policymakers and those individuals and
institutions that work closely with them (e.g., chambers
of commerce). The idea emerged from this research. As
one local official told us, “I want a single publication
that brings together all of the various city rankings
and explains them to me in plain English.”
return to list of questions
Q: HOW IS THE GOLD GUIDE DIFFERENT FROM OTHER RANKINGS PUBLICATIONS?
The Gold Guide is unique for a number of reasons.
First, it is not just a ranking but also a compendium
of rankings published by leading American institutions.
It is the only publication in the country that tracks
and compiles hundreds of city and state rankings published
throughout the year.
Second, in addition to compiling these rankings, the
Gold Guide analyzes them in order to create its own “Best of the Best” ranking.
Third, the Gold Guide offers many additional performance
assessment tools that are exclusive to it and that provide
readers with unprecedented insight into the performance of
the nation’s cities and states. These features
are described in detail below.
return to list of questions
Q: HOW WERE THE RANKINGS IN THE GOLD GUIDE SELECTED?
NPRC’s research staff reviewed over 16,000 databases
and independent news sources and selected those city
and state rankings whose methodologies were sufficiently
rigorous to merit publication.
return to list of questions
Q: HOW WERE THE GOLD GUIDE'S "BEST OF THE BEST" RANKINGS CALCULATED?
NPRC’s researchers enlisted a well established
consensus-based methodology to calculate the “Best
of the Best” rankings. This technique has been
used in other fields for decades. Economists writing
for the celebrated Blue Chip Economic Indicators reports
have relied on a consensus-based approach for years
to evaluate and project the performance of the nation’s
economy. Their reports are widely regarded as the “most
trusted source available” in their field.
The Gold Guide’s rankings are unique because for
the first time ever NPRC’s researchers have applied
this innovative method to city and state rankings to
create a path-breaking assessment of the nation’s
communities.
return to list of questions
Q: WHAT IS THE VALUE OF THE GOLD GUIDE'S CONSENSUS-BASED TECHNIQUE?
The core value of the consensus method is the comprehensive
insights it provides. By drawing upon many related rankings,
the Gold Guide minimizes the effect of any single ranking
in order to better “tell the story” of a
city or state’s overall performance.
For example, assume a ranking ranks all 50 states’
educational systems on the basis of three measures:
- Percentage of 8th graders who score “proficient"
in science and math on NAEP
- Average ACT/SAT scores
- High school graduation rates
Suppose another ranking ranks the states’ educational
systems on three measures as well: - Per pupil spending
- Pupil-teacher ratio
- Percentage of classrooms with internet access
Although each of these rankings provides useful insights,
each is necessarily limited by the choice of measures
it uses. The first ranking only uses output measures,
such as test scores and graduation rates. The second
ranking only uses input measures, such as spending and
internet access.
The Gold Guide’s consensus-based methodology offers
more comprehensive insights by drawing on both rankings’
measures.
return to list of questions
Q: WHAT ARE THE LIMITATIONS OF THE GOLD GUIDE'S CONSENSUS-BASED TECHNIQUE?
The technique relies on existing rankings. Therefore,
if some cities or states are not examined by an existing
ranking, their performance will not be captured by the
Gold Guide. In these cases, the successes and failures
of lesser-studied communities will be overshadowed by
those cities or states that are more frequently ranked.
Another limitation, which is not unique to the Gold
Guide’s methodology, relates to the timeliness
of the data underpinning the rankings. Although the
Gold Guide has strict requirements as to the publication
date of the rankings that are contained in it, the data
on which the rankings are based are themselves often
a year or more old.
This means there is a time lag between the data and
the rankings based on them and the reality they are
intended to measure. To mitigate the effects of this
limitation, the Gold Guide uses only the most recently
published rankings.
return to list of questions
Q: IN ADDITION TO THE COMPILED RANKINGS AND THE "BEST OF THE BEST" RANKINGS, WHAT OTHER FEATURES DOES THE GOLD GUIDE OFFER?
The Gold Guide contains a number of powerful features.
For instance, it provides readers with “Insight
Statements” from over 150 governors, mayors, CEOs,
and other prominent leaders. The statements are detailed
explanations of the best practices used by those cities
and states that perform at the top of a given ranking.
Readers are therefore able to quickly and conveniently
identify a city or state's keys to success. Click here for a complete PDF listing of Insight Statement Officials.
The Gold Guide also offers “Trend Trackers,”
which trace the historical performance of each city
and state. The feature comes in two complementary formats.
The numerical format allows readers to track specific
performance trends over time while the mapping format
gives readers the ability to identify general performance
patterns.
Another feature is “Ranking Summaries,”
which are easily accessible synopses of the compiled
rankings. This feature provides readers with enormous
time-saving benefits, effectively serving as the “cliff
notes” version of the compiled rankings. Each
profile contains seven elements: (1) ranking organization’s
name, (2) ranking organization’s mission, (3)
concise description of the featured ranking, which also
defines all key terms used in the ranking, (4) plain
English description of the ranking’s methodology,
the measures used to create the ranking, and the weighted
values of each, (5) name of ranking source, (6) type
of ranking source, and (7) the formats in which the
source is published.
“Performance Profiles” provide readers with
an unparalleled assessment of a city or state’s
strengths and weaknesses. Each profile, customized to
an individual city or state and enhanced with cutting-edge
graphics, contains a proprietary competitiveness spectrum
that classifies a city or state’s performance
according to seven degrees of competitiveness. The profiles
are the only performance assessment tools of their kind
in the country.
return to list of questions
Q: HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO CREATE THE GOLD GUIDE?
From conception to print, it took a team of researchers,
editors, and designers just over 16 months to create
the publication.
return to list of questions
Q: HOW DO I GET A RANKING PUBLISHED IN THE GOLD GUIDE?
The editors of the Gold Guide encourage requests
for publication in future editions. All requests should
be sent to:
National Policy Research Council
Gold Guide Editors / Request for Publication
2813 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20007
goldguide@nprcouncil.com
return to list of questions
Q: HOW MUCH DOES THE GOLD GUIDE COST?
The regular annual subscription price is $175. Because
this is the Inaugural Edition, the Gold Guide’s
publisher—the National Policy Research Council—has
set the annual subscription rate at $135 for a limited
time.
return to list of questions
Q: HOW DO I ORDER THE GOLD GUIDE?
Click here for ordering instructions.
return to list of questions
|
 |
|
