Spotlight On: Evaluation Technical Assistance Services
Proving that programs and practices improve people’s lives is hard. Abt’s Evaluation Technical Assistance (TA) team has supported hundreds of evaluators to meet that challenge and provide real-world, rigorous evidence of program effectiveness. Our proactive, collaborative approach builds capacity to conduct effectiveness research using a range of evaluation methods in a variety of settings, from schools to communities to workforce development programs. Our experts ensure evaluators choose the right methods and then design their evaluation to align with best practices and standards for high quality evidence.
Expertise
Our Evaluation TA services are:
Rigorous: Our TA supports evaluators in designing and conducting evaluations that meet the most rigorous standards for causal evidence.
Customized: No two field-based evaluations are alike! Our Evaluation TA team customizes TA to the unique needs and context of each evaluation and grant.
Flexible: Evaluators benefit from flexible TA formats: individual consultation, webinars for all evaluators, small group discussions, and proven tools for designing and tracking evaluation progress.
Responsive: Our TA is responsive to the unique needs of each evaluator, recognizing that the conditions for evaluation design and implementation will evolve over time.
Proactive: We have seen it all! We anticipate potential roadblocks and provide workable solutions to maintain a rigorous evaluation.
Consistent: Our TA rests on proven solutions to evaluation challenges, tested by our own experience and the experience of hundreds of evaluations we have supported since 2010.
Relevant Experience
Technical Assistance for Education Innovation and Research Evaluations (EIR)
Client: U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Science
All EIR grantees must fund an independent evaluation of their project’s implementation and effectiveness. Since 2016, our expert Evaluation Technical Assistance team has provided support to maximize the strength of the causal conclusions and the quality of implementation data. Evaluation findings will be a substantial contribution to the evidence base about what works for improving student outcomes in a wide range of domains and settings.
The National Evaluation of Investing in Innovation (i3)
Client: U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Science
The i3 program awarded more than $1.3 billion to 172 grantees to scale-up, validate, and develop evidence-based education programs to improve student outcomes. All grantees funded an independent evaluation to document the effectiveness and fidelity of implementation of their intervention. Abt’s Evaluation Technical Assistance team supported the independent evaluators in meeting rigorous evidence standards and provided much needed evidence about what works for students.
Evaluating Child Welfare Community Collaborations
Client: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
ACF grantees implement and evaluate community-based approaches to preventing child abuse and neglect to reduce trauma, incidence of child maltreatment, and placements into foster care. Abt experts provide technical assistance to support the quality and rigor of grantees’ local evaluations to ensure we learn about and document promising community approaches.
Evaluating the Workforce Innovation Fund
Client: U.S. Department of Labor
Our experts supported 43 grantees of the Workforce Innovation Fund to evaluate whether their interventions produced meaningful impacts for participants. While the evaluations varied in their strength, grantees produced a broad array of findings on the many and varied interventions, contributed important information to the evidence base, and gained capacity to conduct future evaluations.
