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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
Program Assessment

Program

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Appalachian Regional Commission

The commission's purpose is to reduce the substantial socioeconomic gaps between Appalachia and the rest of the nation. The program attempts to reduce these gaps by awarding grants to various projects such as workforce training, highway construction, small business start-up assistance, and education programs.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Adequate

This rating describes a program that needs to set more ambitious goals, achieve better results, improve accountability or strengthen its management practices.
  • The program has made significant strides in developing outcome-oriented performance measures and in helping to coordinate federal resources to the region. For example, recent efforts have brought state and federal stakeholders together to develop strategies to address such issues as health care and brownfields redevelopment in the region.
  • Defining the commission's specific niche and understanding its impact on community and economic development remains a challenge, as there are a number of federal programs that provide assistance to the region and the program's investment is relatively small compared to total federal investment.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Focusing efforts on planning and coordinating regional investments and targeting assistance to areas of distress.
  • Revising performance measure methodology to eliminate double-counting of performance due to commission and non-commission funding.
  • Sharing performance data and research results among Federal agencies to better understand the link between Federal investments and overall community-level change.

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