Our Experience
ETI specializes in third-party evaluations and accountability programs, especially in education. Many of our evaluations have been instrumental in the development of public policy as well as state and federal legislation. Throughout, our focus is on helping clients improve their programs as well as maintain accountability to funders and oversight committees. Our evaluations include:
  • Needs Assessments. We help our clients determine if a program/project is really needed through comprehensive assessments of the target audiences’ needs. We design a process that provides appropriate input to inform decision-making and guide the development of a program that will be successful.
  • Formative or Process Evaluations. We work with the client in the development of a program, reviewing the program design, processes, structure and implementation to help identify areas that are working well and areas that need to be improved.
  • Summative or Impact Evaluations. With the groundwork established in the implementation phase, we measure the results of a program, comparing the program outcomes against the stated mission/objectives/standards. We answer the key questions:
How well is the program doing?
What needs to be changed?
What else do we need to do?
  • Best Practices. We select a sample of the best programs to find out why they are successful, and to identify what they are doing that can be documented and replicated in other arenas. This often involves identifying program strategies or component areas that are of interest to the public and other stakeholders.
  • Organizational Capacity Building. We work with organizations to help them establish accountability systems through the organization, identifying evaluation goals and metrics for every division and subgroup within the organization. We provide technical assistance in the development of forms for evaluating specific events and work with grantees of organizations to design and implement their evaluation plans.