New to evaluation, writing an evaluation plan, or looking to learn more? We can support you in all things evaluation. Experienced with evaluation? Share best practices and stay in tune with new trends.
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EvaluATE is the evaluation hub for the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program. We serve evaluators, project leaders and staff, grant specialists, and college administrators as the go-to partner for all things evaluation. The EvaluATE team is based at The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI.
Evaluation is systematic and culturally responsive inquiry into the effectiveness and operations of programs. Evaluation involves identifying important questions, collecting and interpreting data to answer those questions, and sharing findings with key stakeholders for the purposes of improvement, evidence, and accountability.
EvaluATE’s resources are organized around eight areas of evaluation activity. The tasks in these areas cover the entire life cycle of a project. Click on the thumbnails to learn more about each one and find related resources.
Plan and manage the resources needed to conduct an evaluation, including people, money, and time.
Managing an evaluation involves allocating and using resources effectively to carry out an evaluation–especially people, money, and time. …
Involve people who care about the program in planning and conducting its evaluation.
Evaluation stakeholders are people who are involved in or affected by the project being evaluated or the evaluation itself. When stakeholders are involved, they are more likely to care about the evaluation and use the results. …
Decide what aspects of a program will be evaluated and how.
Designing an evaluation involves making a series of decisions about the key questions the evaluation will address and how to structure the inquiry. …
Collect data systematically and transform it into usable information.
Information for an evaluation is obtained through systematic procedures. The collected information is then analyzed, which is the process of organizing and transforming raw data into evaluation findings. …
Use evidence to reach judgements about a program and answer evaluation questions.
Interpretation is the process of making sense of analyzed data to answer evaluation questions. …
Summarize evaluation results and put the information to use.
Formal communication about evaluation includes describing the evaluation process and results in a way that stakeholders can understand and use. …
Ensure the quality of an evaluation.
Quality assurance involves taking steps to ensure that evaluation plans, activities, and products are sufficiently useful, practical, ethical, and accurate. …
EvaluATE supports multiple research on evaluation efforts to further understand evaluation practices within the ATE community and beyond.
Learn MoreWe host networking events to build an evaluation community within ATE and encourage a peer-to-peer learning environment.
Learn MoreEvaluATE offers free one-on-one coaching to those submitting to or funded by NSF’s ATE program. Work with a coach to discuss your unique context and specific questions.
Learn MoreThe ATE Survey has been conducted annually by the WMU Evaluation Center since 2000. The survey collects information about ATE projects’ and centers’ activities and achievements. The findings may be used by ATE grantees, grantseekers, and program officers to inform program and project planning and evaluation and by STEM education researchers to investigate issues related to technician education.
EvaluATE is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant numbers 0802245, 1204683, 1600992, and 1841783. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed on this site are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. 
