Value-Creation Evaluation Framework for Evaluating NSF Advanced Technological Education Projects

Evaluation is a required component of NSF Advanced Technological Education (ATE) funded projects, consortia, and centers. Unfortunately, evaluation is an area of proposal development that may not receive adequate attention. Evaluation uses a language foreign to most technical faculty members, primarily classroom teachers with heavy teaching loads focused on their primary area of technological expertise. To help faculty overcome this language barrier requires putting evaluation in terms technical faculty can understand and creating a framework and visual model to help them develop a mental picture of the evaluation process. This paper describes a "Value-Creation Evaluation Framework" that has proven effective in evaluating ATE projects. A description of the application of this model to a series of ATE Projects will show how a well-constructed theory of change coupled with a value-creation evaluation framework can be successfully used for ATE project evaluation. This paper can provide insight into program evaluation for administrators, faculty, and grant professionals as they prepare ATE proposals for submission to NSF.