Why it Matters
Building Evidence Through Evaluations is one of six evidence-based spending strategies LEAs can use to achieve better outcomes for all through procurement. Ongoing evaluation helps LEAs understand how well an education program is working, for whom and under what circumstances. Evaluation will help an LEA answer the question: “Are our investments making the impact we seek?”
Sometimes an LEA might not be able to nor want to engage in evaluation on their own. This could be because they do not have the internal capacity to collect and analyze the right data in the right way or because an evaluation may be cost-prohibitive. Additionally, it is often preferable to engage in a third party external evaluator in order to ensure independent evaluation results.
LEAs can collaborate with external providers or partners to build or add to their internal capacity and increase the power of their evaluations.
Federal Uniform Grants Guidance
- Recent revisions to the federal Uniform Grants Guidance clarifies that federal grantees - at both the state and local levels - may use federal funds to support data and evaluation. Learn more about how local governments - including LEAs - can use the updated guidance to support evidence-based policy and spending here.
- State grant programs may also include evaluation as an allowable use of grant funds. For example, the Colorado Department of Education’s 2021 Comprehensive Literacy State Development grant program, which includes, “Evaluation of existing structures, practices, and instructional materials across birth through grade 12 to ensure they are evidence-based…” as an allowable use of funds.
Institute for Education Sciences
- Through the Institute for Education Science’s Regional Education Laboratory program, LEAs have free access to support in generating and applying evidence to improve student outcomes.
Harvard University's Center for Education Policy Research
- Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research houses three programs designed to support LEAs capacity to engage in evidence-based policymaking:
- Through a 2-year Fellowship program, Harvard’s Strategic Data Project partners with LEAs, charter networks, state agencies, and nonprofits to bring high-quality research methods and data analysis to bear on education management and policy decisions.
- Proving Ground works with LEAs to help them identify and test solutions to specific challenges and supports their LEA partners’ continuous improvement efforts with data analysis and rapid-cycle evaluation; and
- The National Center for Rural Education Research Network at Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research, is designed to build rural school and LEA capacity to engage in evidence-based continuous improvement and evidence-building activities.
National Network of Education Research-Practice-Partnerships
- The National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships provides resources and training for LEAs and researchers that aim to enter into research-practice partnerships (RPPs) and can help LEAs build connections with researchers committed to providing practical, actionable research support to improve student outcomes.
W.T. Grant Foundation
- The W.T. Grant Foundation funds research on RPPs and has curated guidance, examples and resources to support LEAs in building effective RPPs.
- The National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships includes over 70 members, each an example of an RPP. Members include the following local examples:
The Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) is a research practice-partnership between institutions of higher education in Maryland, Baltimore City Public Schools, organizations that serve families and children in Baltimore City, and other civic and community partners.
The Boston Early Childhood Research Practice Partnership (RPP), which includes practitioners at the Boston Public Schools and researchers from the University of Michigan, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and MDRC.
The SUCCESS Research Practitioner Partnership, short for Secure and Upgrade Computer Science in Classrooms through an Ecosystem with Scalability & Sustainability, aims to boost access to computer science learning in middle school classrooms across West Virginia by enhancing curriculum and professional development for teachers.
The University of Chicago’s Education Lab’s (EdLab) mission is to partner with school districts to design, test and scale programs to ensure all students have the opportunity for future success. EdLab provides capacity building and program evaluation support to its LEA partners and is a model research-practice partnership.
Government agencies in Washington D.C. often rely on The Lab @ DC, its internal data and evaluation shop.