• Western Michigan University

Kalamazoo, MI

EvaluATE promotes the goals of the ATE program by partnering with centers and projects to

• Strengthen the program’s evaluation knowledge base.
• Expand the use of exemplary
• evaluation practices.
• Support the continuous improvement of technician education throughout the nation.

EvaluATE’s Resources Help to Build Evaluation Capacity in the ATE Community

With an eye on accountability and improvement, ATE centers and projects need and want to demonstrate their impact on students. EvaluATE assists ATE grantees and their evaluators with this task in a variety of ways. Webinars and workshops, attended by more than 350 individuals since July 2009, are helping the ATE community to design evaluations that ultimately advance and enhance technological education. EvaluATE’s Web-based resource library contains practical materials that are especially pertinent to evaluation in the ATE context.

There is evidence that ATE grantees’ focus on evaluation is growing. The percentage of ATE grantees using external evaluators has grown from 88% in 2008 to 95% in 2010. Effective formative evaluations are leading to program improvements. Summative evaluations are helping to identify best practices and models for dissemination.

ATE Evaluation Community of Practice Connects ATE Stakeholders

EvaluATE is building and nurturing an ATE evaluation community of practice that connects center and project staff, evaluators, and other stakeholders. Through EvaluATE’s listserv, webinars, workshops, and quarterly newsletter, this community is expanding its knowledge base, problem solving around common evaluation challenges, and sharing materials and best practices. The synergy resulting from an effective and sustainable community of practice is leading to richer and more valuable evaluations that are, in turn, advancing the ATE program.

EvaluATE’s key role is developing a community of educators who conduct, use, and value evaluation as a tool for maximizing students’ success and for addressing community and workforce needs. The center helps ATE grantees connect with qualified evaluators and build evaluation into their project designs at the proposal stage and beyond. EvaluATE’s webinars, workshops, and newsletters showcase ATE grantees and evaluators who have had success in designing and using evaluation to enhance their project outcomes. With involvement from project staff and evaluators from about 20 other ATE centers and projects, EvaluATE encourages grantees to learn from each other in order to advance evaluation knowledge and practice within the ATE program.

EvaluATE’s ultimate goal is to enhance the ATE community’s use of evaluation to support the improvement of technician education.