December 31, 2000
This project produced an evaluation manual to be used within the Greater Kalamazoo community as a guide for using evaluation in community organizations. A newsletter and technical assistance in evaluation were also being provided to community nonprofit organizations to enable them to develop their evaluation capacity.
Kalamazoo Nonprofit Capacity Coalition
Provide technical assistance to the Nonprofit Capacity Coalition
Development of Personnel Evaluation Standards
Revision of Personnel Evaluation Standards
Development of Student Evaluation Standards
Reforming the way decisions are made about students
Cleveland Charter Schools
Principal Investigator: Dr. Gary Miron
August 1, 2000 - June 30, 2005
The Evaluation Center conducted a qualitative study of four charter schools in Cleveland, Ohio, that are sponsored by The Cleveland Foundation. During the three-year project, the Center addressed a variety of research questions related to the charter schools as well as their impact on local public schools and communities. As part of the project, Center staff provided technical assistance to strengthen the accountability plans of the participating charter schools and to develop their capacity to use evaluation to improve their operation and instruction.
Best Practices of Technology Integration
Evaluation of the Technology Literacy Challenge Grant awarded to the Great Lakes Education Network
Calhoun II Capacity Building
Management support of nonprofit agencies in Calhoun County.
Michigan Charter Schools
Principal Investigator: Dr. Gary Miron
June 30, 2000 - July 15, 2002
The Evaluation Center evaluated the charter school initiative in Michigan through a project sponsored by the Michigan Department of Education. Fifty-one schools were visited, and various types of school-specific data were collected from each of them. Data and information from authorizing agencies, management companies, MDE officials, and representatives of traditional public schools and intermediate school districts were collected.
Evaluation of the Edison Project
Principal Investigator: Dr. Gary Miron
June 30, 2000
The Evaluation Center examined the impact of The Edison Project schools on student learning. The Edison Project, one of the largest educational management organizations that operates public schools in the U.S., manages 51 contract and charter schools in 12 states. The study focused on 12 schools that had been operated by The Edison Project for at least 3 years. Center researchers evaluated existing research and evaluated on the impact of Edison schools, comparing student achievement at Edison schools with state and national norms and local district schools, and developing and analyzing case studies for each of the 12 Edison schools examined.
CREATE Publications
Continue dissemination of CREATE publications.
Illinois Charter Schools
Principal Investigator: Dr. Gary Miron
February 29, 2000 - June 29, 2002
The effectiveness of charter schools for the Illinois State Board of Education was evaluated. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through surveys, interviews, document review, focus groups, and case studies. Gains in test scores on standardized tests were analyzed and compared with local districts, comparison schools, and others to determine if future policy changes were needed.
AccessMichigan
Principal Investigator: Dr. Lori Wingate
January 7, 2000 - July 30, 2000
AccessMichigan was a collaborative project of Michigan libraries to create a digital information environment that would offer every resident of the state equitable and easy-to-use access to a core set of information sources. A Technology Literacy Challenge Fund grant from the Michigan Department of Education was used by AccessMichigan to purchase three full-text databases for K-9 students. The Evaluation Center evaluated the K-9 database project through a survey of personnel at public libraries and school library media centers and case studies of six school library media centers.
California State University Charter School of Education
December 8, 1999 - April 30, 1999
The Evaluation Center conducted an external evaluation of the Charter School of Education (CSOE) at California State University, the nation’s first and only charter school of education. The evaluation was designed to provide an external analysis of CSOE’s progress in meeting its goals and to inform decisions regarding continuation or institutionalization of the charter.
Kamehameha Schools’ Successful Schools for Hawaiians Study
Principal Investigator: Dr. Chris Coryn and Dr. Gary Miron
January 1, 1999 - March 30, 2008
The Successful Schools for Hawaiians Study (SSHS) was a large-scale, mixed-method, multicase study conducted to examine school-level factors that influence academic achievement and performance of Native Hawaiian students in public schools in the state of Hawai’i. The study particularly focused on school-level instructional strategies, curricula, and policies that distinguished more successful schools from less successful schools in terms of their Native Hawaiian students’ academic performance. Individual schools were compared using cross-case techniques intended to identify the “success” factors present and operating in the schools sampled. The cross-case strategy was used, not only to make comparisons within like cases (i.e., within low growth schools and within high growth schools), but also between dislike cases (i.e., low and high growth schools). The results of the study concluded that successful schools were those that could be characterized as having collaborative school governance structures; that linked decision structures to data; that had a well-established, dedicated teaching force; that had focused learning communities; that had strong, engaged leaders; that shared accountability for their students’ learning; that were committed to continuous learning; and that provided effective supplementary and after-school programming.
Environmental Education and Training Partnership
Principal Investigator: Dr. Craig Russon
December 1, 1996 - March 31, 2001
The Evaluation Center evaluated the work of the Environmental Education and Training Program (EETAP), a comprehensive collaborative of more than 12 professional organizations and agencies in the field of environmental education. EETAP was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the purpose of advancing knowledge and understanding of environmental education, developing synergistic activities among partners, and focusing attention on traditionally underserved educators and students in environmental education.
MTS
Principal Investigator: Dr. Arlen Gullickson
May 1, 1995 - December 31, 2005
This projects objectives were to enhance evaluation capacity in the science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education communities through materials development, training, and support services. An additional goal was to train NSF intern evaluators to directly assist the evaluation needs of other NSF projects and gather information and materials about current science and math evaluation efforts.
Appalachia Educational Laboratory
Principal Investigator: Dr. Arlen Gullickson
March 1, 1990 - December 15, 2005
This external evaluation addressed AEL’s evaluation needs; explored the impact AEL had in its region; assessed the quality of services and the extent to which needs are being served, as perceived by constituents; and conducted a metaevaluation of the evaluation activities implemented by AEL.
CREATE Institute
The Evaluation Center housed a federally funded research and development center for research on educational accountability and teacher evaluation (CREATE). The Center’s mission was to improve educational evaluation practices in public and private schools in all 50 states. The program consisted of 16 projects under 4 programs; improvement of teacher performance evaluations; improvement of evaluations of administrators, support personnel, and schools; dissemination of products and services, and theory development and special projects.
Current Projects