Read SPEC’s Case Briefs about What Works in Transforming Higher Education
Through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, SPEC conducted two rapid assessment case studies aimed at understanding how colleges and universities make transformational changes to become laser focused on student success. These studies uncovered important insights that higher education administrators will find valuable in their own efforts to transform their institutions. Click here to read about what we learned at Elgin Community College. Click here to read about what we learned at Drexel University.
EvaluationLive!® SPEC's stakeholder engagement model
After almost 30 years as practicing evaluators, Melanie Hwalek and Mary Williams created a model for how to breathe life, fun and excitement into program evaluation experiences. EvaluationLive!® is a practice model that helps evaluators go beyond just doing good work to creating excitement, urgency and a hunger for learning during the evaluation experience. This, in turn, maximizes evaluation use and greater value for stakeholders. The model has been presented to practicing evaluators at the American Evaluation Association and the Canadian Evaluation Society. It’s also helped our nonprofit colleagues learn about how to make program evaluation work better for them. Click here to view and download information about EvaluationLive!®.
Read SPEC's new report Shrinking the Summertime Meal Gap
In the summer of 2020, Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan pilot-tested a new model of summer meal distribution aimed at dramatically reducing summertime child food insecurity. SPEC evaluated the implementation, cost effectiveness, quality, and outcomes of this Grocery Model through stakeholder surveys, interviews, and analyses of meal count and cost data. Click here to read about what we learned about why the model worked and what it takes to sustain it into the future.