February 2008

ICI's Evaluation Group Expands its Services to ICI, U

In 2005, the Institute on Community Integration (ICI) launched The Evaluation Group to offer evaluation services to organizations around the country that serve people with disabilities and other special needs. Last month, The Evaluation Group welcomed a new director, Mary McEathron, who is joined by research associate Karen Evans Stout. Under their leadership the group will not only continue to provide evaluation expertise to clients outside the University who need to evaluate their work and document outcomes as part of accountability processes, but it will also help clients within the University and ICI carry out a variety of evaluation activities. “For instance, we can work with projects within the Institute to carry out the evaluation component of their contracts or grants,” says Mary. “We can also work with academic programs, administrative units, and research centers throughout the University to plan and conduct evaluations of their work or to assist with evaluation contracts they may have with outside companies or agencies.”

The Evaluation Group is guided by a holistic approach. It strives to:

• Begin at the beginning. Facilitate strategic or systems-level planning that supports a solid, clear connection between project/program and evaluation activities.
  
  
• Build on current activities. Identify sources of data collection already in operation and align new data collection procedures to meld with current activities.
  
  
• Clarify and distill the pivotal questions. Help clients clarify what they need to know, why they need to know it, and how they plan to respond.
  
  
• Increase evaluation capacity. Provide evaluation training in a variety of venues including tailored programs presented to individual organizations and topic-specific mini-courses offered to the community.
  
  
• Tell the story well. Engage diverse audiences in discussions about evaluations, reports, and recommendations.

The Evaluation Group is staffed by Mary, who has worked at ICI for four years and has a Ph.D. in evaluation studies, and Karen, who is a long-time member of the University of Minnesota community and has a Ph.D. in educational policy and administration. In addition, a roster of associate consultants across ICI is available to provide specific content expertise to meet the needs of clients. “The Institute has a decades-long history of providing evaluation services around the country, and through The Evaluation Group we have the opportunity to offer an even broader set of customized services through a single point of contact,” says Mary.

For further information about The Evaluation Group, contact Mary at (612) 624-1450 or mceat001@umn.edu, or visit ici.umn.edu/evaluation.