Education Innovation and Research
Achieving End-to-End Success with Westat
Do You Have a Big Idea for Education Innovation?
Your vision deserves an evaluation partner who can ensure its successful realization from conception to impact. The Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program, a federal initiative that requires an independent evaluator, supports programs backed by research to develop and scale innovative solutions to improve student outcomes. Westat can empower your organization to secure an EIR grant and maximize your project’s impact through our rigorous evaluation and strategic partnering expertise.
Contact us at EIR@Westat.com to learn how we can help you.
Why Westat Is Your Ideal Evaluation Partner
Westat’s expert evaluators won’t just help you get funded; we ensure your project thrives. Our approaches to implementation analysis, formative evaluation, real-time information, mixed-methods skillsets, and peer-reviewed scholarship translate into tangible, lasting results. We provide the expertise, support, and collaboration necessary to secure funding and provide actionable results to improve your project and measure its impact.
Unmatched Evaluation Expertise
Westat helps your organization secure an EIR grant by achieving excellent evaluation scores and serves as your trusted evaluator throughout the project. As a nationally recognized leader in research and evaluation, Westat understands the high stakes of the EIR grant competition. With over 20 years of experience designing studies that exceed federal requirements for rigorous design, we provide our partners with an advantage in securing early-, mid-, and expansion-phase funding.
Comprehensive Support
Because of our history securing EIR grants with our partners, Westat knows how to develop successful applications and meet the performance and reporting requirements throughout the grant. Our research methodologists work with you to develop a well-articulated logic model, a theory of change, and a comprehensive evaluation plan. Our approach includes designing a study to examine your initiative’s implementation, impact on outcomes, and associated costs. We ensure an excellent match between your goals and the evaluation approach as we consider research designs and project timelines.
Collaboration and Thought Leadership
At Westat, we excel in balancing the roles of collaborative thought partner and independent evaluator. Our experienced team creates a supportive environment that makes it easy for you to connect with our staff while addressing the challenges that typically arise on multiyear projects. Effective collaboration enhances the process, ensures we manage complexities with innovative solutions, and strengthens outcomes.
Featured EIR Projects
Summer Support for School Success | Early Phase
Westat is an evaluation partner in this early-phase EIR initiative developing and refining a technology-based summer program. The project focuses on rising kindergartners and first graders in rural areas, including dual language learners and students with disabilities, to bolster their foundational literacy and math skills. Westat is leading the evaluation of the curricula to study the impacts on the literacy and math skills development of children aged 4 through 6, as well as studying the cost of different delivery models and the program’s implementation.
21st-Century Partnership for STEM Education: Math Empowerment Through Standards-Based Grading | Mid-Phase
As a key partner in this 2024 mid-phase EIR initiative, Westat is evaluating the implementation, cost, and efficacy of teacher professional development and supports for standards-based grading in middle grades mathematics courses. This project seeks to empower students to take ownership of their learning and achieve greater mathematical understanding. Westat is using a rigorous randomized controlled trial to study the impact on students’ mathematics achievement in multiple states.
Math for All | Expansion Phase
Building upon a mid-phase grant, Westat serves as the evaluation partner for this 2023 grant. Westat is evaluating the efficacy of Math for All, a professional learning program designed to assist schools in implementing high-quality, standards-based mathematics education for a wide range of students. Working with EDC, Westat is conducting a primary randomized controlled trial (RCT) to study Math for All impacts on students and teachers. This team will also conduct a scale-up quasi-experiment that will yield information about the level of support educators need to be fully prepared to lead the program’s professional learning.