Building Consensus, Data Collection, Evaluation, Pedagogy, Personalized Learning
Jeff Sun
New Models for a New Environment

What do we need to do to prepare for the changed educational environment that we are going to face between now and at latest next fall? This is something that every educator – teacher, administrator, policy-maker – should be asking themselves now.

New Models for a New Environment
Data Collection, Evaluation, Personalized Learning
Jeff Sun
We Know What to Do With Lemons (Not that ...

Sun Associates’ work with school districts around the subject of digital learning has suddenly moved from the realm of “someday it would be nice” to the immediate here and now. Let’s celebrate existing achievements and get ready to think about the future.

We Know What to Do With Lemons (Not that there's anything wrong with lemons)
Project Spotlight, Evaluation, STEM
Jeff Sun
Growing STEM Awareness for the Youngest Students

STEM interest and skills start well before Grade 3 and can be developed via non-traditional curricula and experiences. Learn about a project that Sun Associates is evaluating that uses school gardens to develop STEM interest in PreK - Grade 2 students.

Growing STEM Awareness for the Youngest Students
Personalized Learning, Evaluation, Pedagogy
Jeff Sun
Connecting the Dots to Personalized Learning

If we understand that personalized learning is the pedagogical objective of digital and blended learning, then it follows that in an evaluation context our goal is to determine the extent to which a district has constructed and operationalized a student-centered, personalized learning environment. 

Connecting the Dots to Personalized Learning

Indicators

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Balancing Visionary Resources and the Realities of Access

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Balancing Visionary Resources and the Realities of Access

Our recent experience evaluating the development and implementation of a powerful new digital resource from the Boston Public Library's Norman B. Leventhal Map Center brings to mind the need to balance the exciting potential of visionary resources with present day limits on teacher and student technology access.  We encounter this issue in many of projects we evaluate and in the school districts as well as informal educational organizations where we work.  The evaluation process can provide a way for striking a balance between visionary expectations and the realities of the here and now.

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Refining Goals and Establishing Indictators

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Refining Goals and Establishing Indictators

Regardless of your project’s scope, there are a few good common sense steps that your team can take to set the stage for effective evaluation. Planning effectively for project evaluation involves making time for discussing and clarifying your project goals, defining expectations - indicators - for project outcomes, and giving some thought as to what data you want to collect to document those outcomes.  Get started on that process with some simple tools for identifying discussion participants and starting to clarify goals and indicators.

Defining Expectations Up Front

Defining Expectations Up Front

Uncovering, clarifying, and creating the goals that underlie projects before implementation begins is a necessary first step in planning for how your project team will explain the outcomes of your project work.  This process starts with spending time to reflect upon - and document - the connections between the work that you do and the outcomes that you expect.