Skip Office Navigation
OPE: Office of Postsecondary Education
Current Section
Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education - Finding a FIPSE Project Evaluator

  • Your independent evaluator must either be trained in the evaluation of projects similar to yours or must have a track record of doing successful evaluations of projects similar to yours.
  • Your independent evaluator must be someone who does not stand to gain personally or professionally from the project results.
  • Your outside project evaluator must be available to assist you throughout the life of your project.
  • Unless otherwise specified in the Application Package for your particular grant program, a minimum of five percent of your total budget should be allocated to cover the cost of your evaluation activities and the salary of the outside evaluator.
  • You will need to locate an outside project evaluator and submit his/her name to FIPSE within three months of receiving your grant award notification.
  • For a discussion of the role of the outside evaluator, please refer to the "Role of the Outside Evaluator."

If you have not yet located an outside evaluator, we offer the following advice:

  1. The American Evaluation Association (AEA) keeps a list of evaluation consultants searchable by state. The main Web site for the organization is: www.eval.org. The Web page for finding an evaluation consultant is: http://www.eval.org/find_an_evaluator/evaluator_search.asp. Access to this list is free of charge. FIPSE has no affiliation with AEA and has not reviewed individuals or firms listed on the AEA Web site.

  2. You can log into the FIPSE database at http://fipsedatabase.ed.gov and search among all FIPSE grants, past and present. FIPSE funds several different programs and all programs are required to have outside evaluators. The contact information for the project directors, along with project abstracts, is posted for you to review.

  3. You could contract with someone from another department at your organization or institution, particularly the sociology, statistics, psychology or education departments. Generally we do not advise you to hire a graduate student unless he/she has successfully completed consulting work as an evaluator for a project similar to your own. In all cases you cannot hire a graduate student who would be dependent on you for his/her educational or professional advancement.

Top

Evaluation Resources | FIPSE Home



   
Last Modified: 11/30/2010