North Carolina’s successful proposal to secure funding via the United States Department of Education’s Race to the Top (RttT) grant program includes an evaluation of the initiatives outlined in the proposal. This evaluation will take place over the full term of the grant (2010-2014) and is designed to provide formative feedback for program improvement and to determine impact on the target goals of each initiative and on overall, state-level outcome goals. Evaluations will employ rigorous approaches that integrate quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses.

To meet these evaluation goals, the Evaluation Team at the Friday Institute will collaborate with two other organizations – the Carolina Institute for Public Policy (UNC-Chapel Hill) and the SERVE Center (UNC-Greensboro). This Consortium will utilize the diverse expertise and capacities of the three organizations to provide the breadth, depth, and rigor needed for the evaluation activities. Results will be shared regularly with RttT leadership, stakeholder communities, and applicable national audiences through regular reports to state agencies, conference presentations, and journal articles. Evaluation emphasis will be placed on describing statewide RttT impacts and, where possible, understanding the factors that facilitate progress.

For more information about the Consortium for Educational Research and Evaluation – North Carolina, please visit cerenc.org.

For more information, visit the FI Evaluation Team’s website.