If your time is limited, your educational organization is short-staffed or in need of additional quantitative expertise, you can partner with NTEC to either improve your program’s effectiveness or demonstrate the impact your program is making.

North Texas
Evaluation Center

Producing effective, data-driven solutions for education.

Our Mission

Our mission is to empower educational organizations with comprehensive evaluation, research, and assessment services, enabling them to make informed decisions and drive meaningful improvement. We are dedicated to providing high-quality and tailored solutions that support our clients in effectively measuring, analyzing, and maximizing their outcomes. By fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making and continuous learning, we strive to enhance educational practices and positively impact student success. Through our expertise, collaboration, and commitment to excellence, we aim to be a trusted partner in the pursuit of educational excellence and the advancement of evidence-based practices.

WHAT WE DO

Research Design & Data Analysis

Instrument Development, Assessment, & Benchmarking

At North Texas Evaluation Center, we understand the challenges educational institutions and other organizations face when it comes to gathering and analyzing data, both for educational evaluation purposes and day-to-day operations.

NTEC works with organizations of all sizes, specifically focusing on educational institutions that need support in data analytics, data interpretation or modeling, and data visualization. One area of primary expertise is in development, refinement, validation, and administration of educational assessments using Item Response Theory as our foundational statistical approach – allowing you to establish meaningful benchmarks for performance.

We work with a wide variety of organizations, including large scale state or government agencies, school districts, institutions of higher education, non-profits, community-based organizations, and for-profit organizations that develop educational interventions and require empirical evidence about the efficacy of those interventions to facilitate learning or change.

The process of data collection can often seem overwhelming. What kind of data should you be collecting? Where can you find it? Who should you consult to ensure you have the right data?

Rest assured, if your organization needs to enhance data collection and analysis, it's best to start from where you currently stand. These strategies are designed to help your team build capacity in data gathering and analysis. If you would like more information, we invite you to schedule a free one-hour consultation with one of our experts. They can provide further insights into how we assist educational organizations in learning to measure and maximize outcomes.

Here are some practical steps we can help you take:

1

Conduct a data audit specific to your organization. Take stock of the data you are already collecting, including surveys, interviews, end-of-program projects, and reports. By conducting a thorough data audit, we work with you can identify which data is truly being utilized and which pieces are not. If you discover that you are collecting a significant amount of unused data, it may be wise to discontinue its collection. This approach allows your team to focus on the most important data that will facilitate learning, program/service improvement, and meeting stakeholder needs.

2

Foster a shared understanding of observational data. Observational data is readily available all around us. However, it can be subjective, with different team members interpreting it differently. Working as a team, we observe your programs or services in action and designate specific areas to observe and gather data on in a way that produces more objective data for analysis. Afterward, have team members complete a reflection document or use a simple reflection exercise such as "How did it look/sound/feel? Are we achieving our goals in areas a, b, and c?" Set aside 30 minutes for a debriefing session where team members can share their observations. Consistent documentation of these observations is crucial as it allows you to build evidence and identify trends over time.

3

Integrate data-focused discussions into your team meetings and eventually build data dashboards accessible for all team members. Dedicate a new agenda item during your team meetings where one team member shares a piece of data they have gathered. This could range from observational data to email campaign open rates, funding benchmarks, or goals – any data that is relevant to review and discuss as a team. Encourage team members to share what the data means to them and how it aligns with your team's goals. By intentionally incorporating data discussions, you will nurture a data-driven mindset among your teammates, encouraging them to consider how the data they gather can contribute to learning and program/service improvement. NTEC can help you readily access your data requirements and support your interpretations of what the data is telling you.

Schedule a Consultation NOW