EDUC 7093 Program Evaluation for Improvement w/Practicum 3 credits

All programs and organizations need information about what is working or not working in order to improve. But how do individuals and organizations learn to engage in continuous improvement, where improvement happens with frequency and depth across the whole system? This course is designed to introduce students to key concepts in improvement science and formative evaluation as a way to support learning from real-life attempts at improvement. It is meant for students who will be working or leading in educational settings where they will be asked to collect and use information to build organizational capacity and affect change, as well as for students interested in an introduction to the practice of evaluation. Students will acquire a practical set of skills, such as communicating with key stakeholders and generating relevant evaluation questions and methods of collecting related data. Students will practice these skills in an authentic setting during a required 25-hour practicum.