MMSA Research Consulting & Workshops

Helping Educators Discover What Makes
Their Programs Unique

Delivering successful STEM learning curriculum and opportunities, in either informal or formal learning environments, is not just about what or how educators teach but also understanding the outcomes of those programs and projects. STEM learning is more successful when schools and organizations invest in research-to-practice projects that incorporate strong research methods with great teaching and learning. Organizations and institutions struggle to keep up with understanding the outcomes of their work and often do not have the specialized knowledge or staff to commit to full-scale research or assessment plans. MMSA offers support to organizations for outside evaluation, research planning and management, and general support throughout the research design and implementation process.

MMSA Research and Evaluation Services

MMSA offers the following services to partners, educational non-profits, science learning organizations, and school districts on a consulting basis:

• External evaluation services for programs including federally funded grants, family-foundation supported projects, and more. Support is available throughout the entire process; from project setup and research management to analysis and reporting.
• Preliminary planning to develop research and evaluation plans that will provide information to improve your programming and attract funding.
• Consulting and support of existing research or evaluation plans including analysis of existing data and merging of datasets.
• Data collection instrument design and administration
• Establishment of data management systems adhering to ICPSR standards and security.
• Grant writing support for research planning and facilitation.
• Dissemination plans including how to identify appropriate journals for publication or conferences for presentation. We can also provide you with assistance on how to outline your manuscript, and establish writing timelines.
• Specialized workshops to train your team on research and evaluation methods (see examples below).

Specialized Workshops or Clinics

MMSA can plan and facilitate workshops or clinics for your staff and project teams to focus in on a topic that can support your various research needs.

• Working with educational data
• Analysis of educational data
• Developing research plans and designs
• Data management and archiving
• Research and project management
• Integrating formative and summative assessments
• Instrument development (survey design and implementation, interview and focus group protocols, embedded assessments)
• Programmatic needs assessment
• Proposal and manuscript workshops
• IRB and working with human subjects research