MNA takes a gentle leap. MNA has just become the national evaluation technical assistance providers for the federally-funded Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA) grants. In close partnership with SAFAL Partners- prime contractor (Houston, TX) and SwingTech (Greenbelt, MD), MNA will provide evaluation TA to over 160 schools/districts that provide academic support each year to over a million military-connected students and their families across the country. We are very happy and …
News and Updates
MNA goes to the first state
Earlier last week, we received news that we have been selected to complete the statewide external evaluation of the 21stCCLC after school program grant for Delaware. Using a mixed methods, we will be assessing and tracking data across 25 grantees in 38 sites since 2015. Our thanks to the Delaware Department of Education and the University of Delaware for this opportunity. Stay tuned for some cool dataviz and infographics. …
MNA to evaluate the equity in arts education project at Baltimore City Public Schools
We are excited and glad to continue our evaluation work in several Baltimore City Public Schools this new school year to assess an equitable access to arts education and arts integration in collaboration with Arts Every Day, a non-profit arts-advocacy group based in Baltimore. This work is supported by grant funds from the Goldseker Foundation. …
Power of Mentoring
Young people rely on positive and caring adults in order to reach their goals. Our recently concluded evaluation of the Power of One mentoring program at Anne Arundel County Public Schools demonstrates just that: Youth experiencing homelessness thrive when adults invest in their education and overall well being. We applaud the tireless work of pupil and social workers at the county and schools who ensure that all students graduate from high school and enter post-secondary education. …
Career Navigators are heroes without capes
As we wrap up our Department of Labor - TAACCCT grant evaluation contracts, a note of appreciation to all the career navigators we have met with / spoken to in the past five years in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, and Oklahoma to learn about their tireless and often self-less work with community college students. They are heroes without capes. …
An Infographic is Worth a Thousand Words
Telling a grant's impact story using data visualization is something we do well at MNA. For our multi-site, Department of Labor-funded, Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career Training (TAACCCT) grant (2014-18) in Arizona, we have developed a few infographics to inform and present evidence at each of the four sites on what works in workforce development and community college training in the area of advanced manufacturing. These data metrics include: Participants’ educational and …
Seeking an education finance statistician or expert to partner on a proposal
MN Associates, Inc. (MNA) is planning to bid on an education policy / school finance proposal that is due soon. We are interested to partner with a part-time consultant (location not critical) who has extensive research / evaluation knowledge and work experience in completing the following for the project, if awarded: 1. Cost modeling at the state/ federal levels 2. Calculating school funding formulae at the state/ federal levels 3. Education policy (early learning systems and processes) 4. …
What are we, if not, good storytellers?
The dog days of summer, oftentimes, for program evaluators means cranking up evaluation reports for our clients. This also means writing and editing pages of reports that oh so often don’t get read or reviewed completely. Over the years, after having just completed 180 technical reports, we have learned that writing a lengthy report does not necessarily mean writing an effective one. At MNA, we are all about producing quality work that has an impact on learning. Communicating the right …
MNA for the Arts!
As a lover of all things art and culture and an amateur painter of Madhubani art form, when an evaluation opportunity to work with the arts came knocking, I simply couldn’t pass it up! Since 2017, MNA has been working with Arts Every Day (AED), a Baltimore-based non-profit arts advocacy organization on their NEA-funded planning grant to improve equity and access in the arts for all the City Schools students. Known as the Baltimore Arts Education Initiative (BAEI), we have been actively engaged …
MNA goes to FL (again)!
MNA is contracted by the Pinellas County Public Schools (FL) to evaluate their new pilot Elevating Excellence gifted and talented program this summer. The work is supported by the Pinellas Education Foundation. This new project will extend our ongoing 5-year evaluation work with the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and the K-8 Henderson School in Boca Raton (FL) which was funded by the US Department of Education's Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented grant program in 2017. Looking forward to …