Investing in Evaluation
Welcome to the March 2023 edition of the Improved Insights Newsletter: a newsletter for folks in informal STEM learning spaces who want to learn more about how to measure and communicate the impacts of their work.
I’m Sarah M. Dunifon - a long-time STEM educator, evaluator, and equity advocate. After spending time working in museums, nonprofits, and higher education, I now work on cutting-edge informal STEM learning research and evaluation with my team at Improved Insights. We specialize in informal STEM learning and youth programs.
This monthly newsletter includes tips, resources, and news on informal STEM learning evaluation. We hope you find it valuable! Now, let’s get started —
Investing in Evaluation
We talk a lot in this newsletter about evaluation and evaluation-related topics. But why is evaluation so important, and what opportunities does it provide for informal STEM organizations?
In this month's newsletter, we'll talk about why your organization should think about investing in evaluation as part of its program structure, the resources needed to adequately invest in evaluation, and how to think about your organization’s goals and priorities around evaluation. To read the full article, check it out in our Insights. In the meantime, here’s a taste:
Why Invest in Evaluation?
Typically, my clients are investing in evaluation for one of two reasons: (1) they are required to conduct an evaluation of a program as a part of grant stipulations, or (2) they’re interested in understanding their programs better and improving their practice.
No matter the motivation, the value proposition is clear.
Evaluation is vital for informal STEM organizations because it allows us to learn about our audiences and offerings, collect hard data to support our work, and more clearly tell stories of impact to our partners and supporters.
Let’s dig into two of the most prominent benefits now:
Improving Practice
One of the most important elements of my job as an evaluator is to help organizations see the work they do more clearly. Sometimes, when we’re too close to something we fail to recognize the big picture. Or, perhaps we have some preconceived notions or early judgments about a program that are hard to shake.
Bringing an evaluator in on a project can offer a fresh perspective and clear eyes. They can point out things that would have typically gone unnoticed. These fresh perspectives can identify areas for improvement, unique strengths, curious outliers, and spaces to explore further.
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Communicating Impact
As an informal educator early on in my career, I remember looking at the programs I worked on and just knowing that they did good things for the youth we served. I saw firsthand the development of confidence, STEM literacy, leadership, and environmental content knowledge our K-12 audiences gained. But it was not until I got more involved with the evaluation process that I understood how to capture that firsthand experience and better communicate it to our funders, internal development staff, and even the education department leadership. Being able to tell the story of impact more concretely and successfully added leverage to the programs and compiled support behind them. Now, not only could I see the importance of this work - so could everyone else.
60-Second Suggestions
Here are a few of my favorite things this month, usually pertaining to informal STEM education and evaluation, but occasionally some fun personal stuff, too.
This article from The74 discusses the importance of out-of-school STEM programs in setting students up for success - especially for girls and other underrepresented groups. It specifically calls for policymakers to continue investing in programs that expand STEM education outside of the classroom and highlights the incredible successes of several existing programs.
National Geographic is offering an online course for educators titled Learning Through Citizen Science. The course provides an opportunity for educators to participate in global citizen science, and helps them create a plan for engaging K-12 students in one or more authentic research projects. The course is self-paced, so you can begin at any time and work at your own speed.
An article from The Journal addresses the major gap between the aptitude of girls for STEM and their interest in pursuing STEM careers. This is a great read for those interested in reimagining STEM workforce development, specifically for girls and young women.
I would love to hear from you this month about your organization’s investment in evaluation. What are some benefits (or challenges) you have experienced as a result of including an evaluation component in your programming? Do you feel there has been a good return on your investment? Or are you totally new to the evaluation process? What are some questions that you might have for an evaluator?
Let us know in the poll and in the comments:
Until next time - thanks!