Guiding Evaluation Principles

Several core principles undergird how we think about our evaluation work with our clients:

Collaborative Planning

We believe in the value of working together to plan the evaluation or research right from the start. This means we work together to understand what you want to accomplish, define shared goals and questions, and come up with a plan that will work for all involved. It also means we’re committed to revisiting the plan and making adjustments throughout the process to be responsive to your needs.

Transparency

We don’t want you to be surprised at any point during the process. We seek your input on drafts of instruments and gain your feedback on strategies for data collection. We are intentional about sharing preliminary findings with you because we know doing so improves our interpretation and your program.

Communication

Clear and regular communication is fundamental to our partnerships. We want to know as much about your programs and services as we can right from the start and also hear how your needs may change over time. And we keep you informed of what we’re doing at each stage so you know what is going on. This communication is key to our goal of being as responsive as possible.

Data-driven Decisions

Our focus is on making evaluation data practical and useful, giving you specific evidence of whether something works and how to make it better. Fundamentally evaluation is about learning about your program to help make it better. We provide concrete recommendations that are grounded in both the data and the literature to help you refine build a program that makes a difference.

Capacity Building

Our ultimate goal is to work with you to help make your programs and services better than they were before our work together started. We want to work together to strengthen what you do so that more students, parents, teachers/faculty, or others can be well-served.