Education
Collaborating to Enhance Education Outcomes
Institutions that advance learning, be it K-12 or higher education, help to educate children and adults and advance knowledge within communities. To enhance learning outcomes in our schools and universities and deliver cutting-edge research, it is essential that educational institutions have access to user-friendly data.
EVALCORP has worked with educational institutions at all levels to provide actionable data through program evaluation, needs assessment, and strategic planning services. The data provided by our expert consultants can enable education programs to enhance in-school and afterschool program delivery, generate sound research methodologies, and obtain needed resources.
Education Expertise and Clients
By partnering with EVALCORP for planning and program evaluation activities, K-12 educational institutions and initiatives determine which aspects of their curriculum best assist their students. For example, our consulting team has helped school districts document the impact of counseling programs for elementary schools, alcohol and drug prevention programs, as well as school violence prevention programs, among other initiatives. We have also partnered with youth education programs that offer programming to schools across the country to assess the impact of their initiatives. Our evaluation services can help school systems demonstrate the impact programs have in addressing things like inequity between student groups, tackling the structural barriers that disadvantage certain students, showing the efficacy of cyberbullying programs, or in-school services developed to improve wellbeing and student mental health. Data collected and analyzed through program evaluation can serve as an essential tool for educational institutions to maintain or attract funding.
EVALCORP also offers needs assessment for educational institutions. Such assessments are applied to enrich understandings of student populations and facilitate program expansion. For instance, a needs assessment can help schools and districts determine the percentage of students with learning disabilities or who are unhoused. Equipped with such knowledge, school personnel can proactively address these concerns to promote learning equity and reduce disparities.
We have also collaborated with colleges and universities on program evaluations as research initiatives. We have collaborated with universities to assist them as they developed and enhanced cutting-edge methodologies to advance research capacity. Our consultants conducted program evaluations for graduate school programs. Our assistance can help universities document the strengths and impacts of the research achievements, network development, and psychological wellbeing of their graduate students. Such partnerships demonstrate their impact with success story narratives and public-facing, user-friendly reports. Our team understands the dynamics of the university research environment.
K-12 and Higher Education Clients
A select list of districts, education organizations, and universities we have partnered with include:
- California State University, Monterey Bay
- Junior Achievement Worldwide
- Loyola University Chicago
- Murrieta Valley Unified School District
- Planetary Society
- Stanford Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education
- Tulare County Office of Education
- UCLouvain
- Ventura County Office of Education
- Woodcraft Rangers
- See our full client list
Case Study: Evaluation of County Office of Education Multi-Tiered System of Support
Client: California County Office of Education
Service Type: Evaluation
Context: EVALCORP partnered with a California County Office of Education to provide multi-year evaluation services for its Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) with school-based Mental Health Services, a state-funded program spanning numerous school districts. The engagement called for building evaluation infrastructure from the ground up, developing measurement tools, tracking outcomes, and generating evidence to sustain continued funding and effective service delivery across a large, diverse, multi-district system.
Approach
Over five years, our team worked closely with the education department and district personnel to develop and refine data-collection instruments, including outcome surveys and tracking tools, ensuring alignment with the county behavioral health department’s reporting requirements. Our team conducted data inventories, data entry, and platform management across school sites and held follow-up meetings to address data gaps. After tailoring data analysis plans to the funded programs and overall initiative, our team conducted quantitative statistical analyses and qualitative coding to inform the evaluation questions established for the project. Additionally, EVALCORP presented at the Annual Learning Summit each year to share key findings with district and county stakeholders.
Impacts Achieved
EVALCORP built evaluation infrastructure and developed tools to measure staff and student outcomes related to mental health stigma, beliefs, awareness of available services, and perceived comfort in accessing care across all districts, tailored to the county’s diverse demographics. Detailed findings, organized and shared at both the district and county levels, have equipped the county office of education and school districts with evidence to demonstrate program impact, support continued funding, and continuously refine their services and programs. EVALCORP continues to deliver annual evaluation reports and staff training in data collection, fostering a culture of data-informed practice across the partnership.