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The combination of high demand for new policies and services and fewer revenue dollars available to government and nonprofit organizations increases the importance of sound evaluation research. The ETR Services team of evaluation researchers has developed a proven approach to both formative and summative evaluations using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Evaluators work with clients to understand clearly and specifically the goals of the organization or program to be studied. They prepare research questions and design logic models based on the clarity of the program mission and the direction of the capacity improvement goal. Evaluators devise data collection methods that exploit available data sources and design new data gathering tools as needed.

The ETR Services evaluation team has particular strength and experience in implementing field data collection strategies that are respectful and sensitive to cultural settings through interviews, telephone or web-based data collection strategies. The evaluation team also has experience in culling needed information from large administrative data sets, such as Unemployment Insurance (UI) wage data, the U.S. Census, state department of public instruction confidential databases of student performance, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission employment data (EEO-1 reports).

Evaluators organize and efficiently manage master databases for analysis. After analyzing the information, they prepare well-written and accessible reports with instructive graphics and tables that benefit program operators, policy makers, and planners by providing valuable information that leads to improvements in program structure and strengthened practices. Our evaluators are experienced in making presentations to academic, senior policy maker and board member audiences.

The focus populations for ETR Services evaluation activity include school students, youth, job seekers, and under-represented or disadvantaged populations, such as minority students, women in mathematics and science, youth offenders, displaced workers, and recent immigrants. The skills of the ETR Services evaluation team are summarized in the following points:

• Evaluation Design and Implementation
• Electronic Data Collection
• Field-Based and Secondary Data Collection
• Quantitative and Qualitative Data Analysis
• Report Writing, Presentation and Dissemination