🎈 IT IS HERE! 🎉
The Guidebook for NSF S-STEM Project Evaluations Across the Project Lifecycle is officially published, and MNA is proud to have authored it as an evaluation technical assistance provider for the S-STEM Resource and Evaluation Center (REC), AAAS Center for STEMM Education & Workforce.
This guidebook is for everyone navigating evaluation across the National Science Foundation (NSF) S-STEM award (actually any multi-year grants to be honest): evaluators, PIs, co-PIs, project managers, and institutional partners. It answers the questions we hear most often:
📌 What should evaluation focus on in early years versus later years?
📌 How do formative and summative evaluation relate to one another?
📌 When is it appropriate to examine retention and completion trends?
📌 How does evaluation differ from, and support, the required generation of knowledge (research) component?
A core message throughout: Evaluation must match the project’s phase and track. What is appropriate in Year 1 looks very different from Year 4. And when evaluation is embedded from the start, rather than retrofitted after funding, it becomes a strategic asset rather than just a compliance requirement.
We are especially proud of the year-by-year roadmap and the lifecycle summary table, which I hope will serve as a practical reference for project teams throughout their grant period. So, check it out!
📥 Available here (for download): https://sstemrec.aaas.org/resource/evaluation-lifecycle-guidebook/
