Citizens Deliver their Report Card to D.C.
With the growing disconnect between
The site works by allowing the registered user to use the standard school grading system of A, B, C, D, or F to grade representatives from any district across the nation. Besides posting representatives’ average daily scores on the site, GradeGov.com also generates e-mails with the report card directly to reps’ inboxes. In other words, each representative gets full and fair notice of how citizens across the country assess their job performance.
Site users are limited to assigning only one grade per day. This is a critical part of keeping the site out of the tool kit of agenda-based organizations. “The site uses simple mathematical averaging, so grades can’t be changed or manipulated in any way,” says the site founder and editor Elizabeth Letchworth says.
But GradeGov.com is designed to go beyond just a broad brush assessment. Once a user assigns a grade, the site prompts a request for details for the grade determination. Through the letter, users can elaborate on representatives’ high grades, or call them out on particular reasons for low performance scores.
The site, launched in April 2009 – just two-and-a-half years ago - reached 3.8 million page views last month.
GradeGov users can stay abreast of Capitol Hill news through Letchworth’s Congressional Candor news on the site’s front page. Archives of her twice weekly Congressional Candor Internet radio show are accessible from GradeGov’s home page. The show is broadcast live each Monday and Friday at 6:30 EDT on BlogTalkRadio. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/gradegov/2011/06/03/elizabeth-letchworths-congressional-candor
Letchworth, is the first and only woman ever elected in the U.S. Senate as Secretary for the Republican majority.
Gov at Home Team
