Evaluating Education Support Programs
ACS TEAM ON PROJECT
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Chad Buckendahl, Ph.D., Partner
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Susan Davis-Becker, Ph.D., Partner
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Deborah Schnipke, Ph.D., Senior Psychometrician
CLIENT
US State Department of Education
PROJECT
In partnership with our colleagues at M.Y.S. Firm and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, ACS designed and led a series of evaluations of legislatively mandated education support programs in the state.
Over four years, the state’s legislature provided funding for seven programs that included support for development and implementation of services for:
- students living in poverty,
- students whose primary language was not English,
- providing social workers for students in schools,
- establishing a literacy program to facilitate on-grade reading by third grade, and
- providing professional development funding to build capacity for teaching and leadership.
Each one of these programs had its own inputs, research questions, methods of inquiry, and outcomes. The results of the interim and final evaluation reports were provided to the State along with findings and recommendations for program improvement and continued funding. Project leadership also provided testimony and responded to questions by the State’s Assembly and Senate.
UNIQUE VALUE
These diverse and complex evaluations were designed to collect a combination of quantitative and qualitative evidence about the design, implementation, outcomes, and effectiveness of the programs. Because recommendations were also made to policymakers about the success of the program and whether to continue funding it, ACS and its partners had to consider technical characteristics of the design, policy implications, and societal benefit of the programs while also balancing the impact of the taxpayer investments in these initiatives. ACS’s ability to design, collect, and synthesize this information in a way that maintained policy-relevance represented a unique contribution for these activities.
SUSTAINABILITY
Because programs like the ones supported by the state legislature are intended to provide the greatest value for the cost, ACS Integrated an evaluation of the residual value of the program to determine whether the project-funded infrastructure, professional development, and related resources would have a benefit beyond the life of the funding.