Education

The Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice (IREPP) is an independent center housed at the Stanford University School of Education. It conducts multidisciplinary research to improve education policy and practice. IREPP’s aim is to train a new generation of education policy researchers equipped to meet the challenge.

IREPP hired BTW to assess its accomplishments during two years of Hewlett Foundation support and strengthen its transition from start-up to fixture, at Stanford and in the field.

In the course of assessment, BTW helped IREPP identify upcoming opportunities for growth and challenges to its capacity. Our evaluation allowed IREPP to reinforce its mission, establish a greater presence on campus and enhance its role in the field of education research.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has an audacious goal: to double the number of low-income young adults with a postsecondary credential by 2025. In 2009, BTW partnered with the Foundation to develop a comprehensive evaluation plan to measure the impact of its work toward that goal.

Together, BTW and the Foundation developed a vision and laid the groundwork for such a plan. Over the course of these studies, we clarified the Foundation’s postsecondary education theory of action, refined its strategies and developed a plan that will launch nearly a dozen independent evaluation efforts.

The findings will be published periodically beginning in 2011.

The Advancement Project (AP) employs a signature consensus-building process to support local and state policy development in California. The results are tangible: genuine, multi-stakeholder reform across traditionally polarizing policy areas. AP asked BTW to evaluate that process and gauge how it was influencing changes in education policy.

We began by developing a framework for assessment, and then tested its efficacy in AP’s Early Childhood Education Water Cooler meetings. Based on the success of that experience, AP has engaged BTW to continue evaluating its education work over three years, focusing on K–12 facilities and finance reform.

The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is a leading voice in education and workforce development in California. In an effort to better understand how its own work is increasing business support for education reform, the Chamber approached BTW.

BTW provided the Chamber with impartial feedback about the capacity and impact of its efforts to galvanize California business leaders to improve educational outcomes. We prepared an “Assessment Memo” for project staff, outlining successes over the previous two years and recommending steps for even greater effectiveness moving forward.

The Chamber has been using these recommendations to refine its strategies and focus for greater impact, and has asked BTW to continue documenting its efforts in the future.

The Educational Network, a division of the public broadcasting station KQED, was curious about the impact of its education training programs on participating educators and their students. BTW worked with KQED over a five-year period to build a growing picture of the programs’ measurable effects.

Each year of the study, BTW carefully focused its evaluation to prioritize key questions, assessing training programs underway and incorporating results from the previous year. BTW’s plan provided progressively instructive data about the programs’ impact, and KQED was able to leverage those data to secure additional funding for its educational programming.

Over time, based on its experience with BTW, KQED adjusted its training programs to make the most of limited resources and evaluate its own efforts, By the time BTW’s role had ended, KQED was in a position to monitor and build on the Network’s impact on its own, using the evaluation tools and systems developed by BTW during the study.

The goal of NewSchools Venture Fund is to transform public education for underserved children. To do this, NewSchools supports education entrepreneurs whose for-profit and nonprofit ventures have the potential to dramatically improve the nation’s school systems.

In Summer 2004, NewSchools engaged BTW to assess how well its Venture Fund supported its first portfolio of investee organizations. We interviewed stakeholders, integrated companion survey data and presented NewSchools with an incisive report.

BTW’s findings helped guide NewSchools’ investments, approach and focus into the future.

The After-school and Summer Enrichment Subprogram of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation helps build sustainable programmatic and financial support for California’s out-of-school programs. Having supported the Subprogram since 2005, the Foundation engaged BTW to evaluate the impact of its contributions.

BTW’s Phase I study, the first step in a multi-year evaluation, determined that the Foundation’s support has built strong technical-assistance infrastructure and developed innovative approaches to workforce development.

Phase II will focus on after-school and summer enrichment; the report will be released in 2011.