Research & Program Evaluation

Ever Innovating.

Research and evaluation to improve effectiveness and inform decisions.

At the Center of Professional Development and Education Reform, we are committed to working in partnership with educational and service organizations. Using participatory evaluation approaches, we support leaders, schools, districts, community programs and organizations to achieve their goals. We provide support and resources to educational and service organizations to increase the capacity to create equitable environments for all people.

We use program evaluation as a systematic method for collecting, analyzing and using information to answer questions about projects, policies, programs and dynamics. Its purpose is to improve effectiveness, inform programming decisions, identify opportunities, increase understanding and capacity within the organization, with the goal of developing and creating equitable educational, learning and service organizations that are mission driven.

Our Program Areas

Evaluation Design and Planning »

Designing and implementing evaluation plans to measure and enhance program outcomes.

Data collection, analysis and data dialogue »

We provide support with data collection and analysis, as well as facilitate data dialogues with your teams to support data-driven decision making.

Evaluation capacity building »

Facilitating connections with external evaluators while ensuring appropriate bidding processes and scopes of work meet University of Rochester and funder requirements.

Other Services & Community Partnerships »

Supporting the evaluation of collaborative programs to strengthen community engagement and outcomes.

Cathy Cerosaletti

Kimberly Fluet

Nahoko Kawakyu O’Connor

Supporting programs that make a difference

Whether you have a program that needs to be evaluated or a grant proposal that requires an evaluation plan, our team can help design rigorous, practical strategies that generate meaningful evidence and support continuous improvement

Contact us to get started

Learn more here

Program Area Details

Evaluation Design and Planning

Program evaluation can be a valuable tool to strengthen your programs. It can help make programs more equitable, increase effectiveness, teamwork and communication, as well as increase responsiveness to the needs and strengths of individuals and communities the programs serve. We design and implement program evaluation informed by your goals and resources. Commonly practiced evaluations include:

Needs assessment

– Program effectiveness evaluation
– Implementation fidelity evaluation
– SWOT analysis
– Professional development evaluation
– Equitable evaluation
– Formative evaluation
– Program evaluation and assessment in STEM in higher education settings

The Warner School of Education has a team that specializes in STEM assessment and evaluation in higher education, working extensively with faculty to evaluate transformative approaches to STEM learning. The team has an extensive portfolio of projects we support, including from the NSF and NIH. Additionally, the team supports academic departments to execute assessment plans through instrument development, focus group coordination and other similar activities.

Data collection, analysis and data dialogue

Do you want to learn more about your organization? Capture success measures? Already have data collected but haven’t done the analysis? We provide support with data collection and analysis, as well as facilitate data dialogues with your teams to support data-driven decision making. Data collection tools are identified or designed to fit the purpose of the project.

Need data collection?

– Focus groups
– Survey design and administration
– Interviews
– Observations

Need data analysis?

– Survey data
– Student achievement data
– Attendance data
– Student growth data
– Discipline data
– Transcript data

Need data dialogue?

– Data visualization
– Data crosswalks with outcomes
– Data dialogues with leadership teams
– Data dialogues with teachers and staff
– Action planning and strategic planning

Evaluation capacity building

The most effective evaluations are ones that are embedded in practice, and to this extent, we encourage increasing evaluation capacity within your programs and organizations.