Evaluation Program
Have you attended the Summer Institute and do you want to understand your projects’ impact more thoroughly? CEMETS can support you with this through our Evaluation Program.
The CEMETS Evaluation Program aims to capture and analyze the effects of your teams’ interventions in education reform after attending the CEMETS Summer Institute. By doing so, the Evaluation Program creates opportunities for cutting-edge academic research.
We can offer support in designing data collection and in collecting, analyzing, and reporting data related to your key goals and the broader implications of your project. Our focus is on causal research—identifying not only what types of changes your intervention produced, but also the magnitude of these changes. In addition, we are interested in what conditions make your intervention more or less successful, who benefits more or less, and how your intervention can increase its impact. Finally, your projects’ specific goals are also key outcomes.
While we cannot guarantee success, CEMETS can write proposals for research funding and participate in meetings with funders to support the proposal. If we have a relevant funding source in our network, we can offer that support. Teams should expect to work on funding proposals and identify potential sources on their own as well. This support applies to the research and evaluation of the project, not to project funding.
ETH Zurich is an academic research institution. Each project will include a contract specifying data usage and management, but ETH Zurich retains the right to freely publish academic research on data collected by the institution. Subjects are always anonymous and institutions, projects, etc. can also be anonymized upon agreement.
Project eligibility
The CEMETS Evaluation Program is available to projects that meet the following criteria:
• At least one member of the project team must be a CEMETS Institute alumnus
• Teams must have at least an initial plan for project implementation that specifies:
- What is the intervention or change?
- What is the target group?
- How do you select participants?
- What are key outcomes you want to affect?
- What is the timeline for the intervention (e.g. starting date, expected outcomes)?
- What are the necessary resources (e.g. finances, personnel, etc.) and where will they come from?
- What data or information might be available to demonstrate impact? What is missing?
- What funders might be interested in supporting this research?
Implementation plans are not set in stone, and answers do not need be completely finalized. CEMETS will work with teams to refine answers to these questions. However, an initial answer to each question is an important starting point.
If your project meets the general eligibility criteria, we will schedule at least one induction meeting with your team to discuss the opportunities and options for evaluation in your case. CEMETS will work with your team to refine a research plan and budget. In most cases, we will discuss the project with you, work on a proposal, and then have at least one follow-up meeting to discuss and refine the proposal. The proposal includes plans for data collection, data management, reporting, key outcomes and metrics, and timelines.
All parties have the option to request additional reporting, changes or additions to data collection, or any other changes to the research plan; these must simply be agreed upon in writing. CEMETS will produce academic publications—which may include additional analyses—on its own time and expense and will share these with the project team.