Strengthening Program Evaluation Capacity Grant Program

Overview

In awarding grants under this program, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) intends to build individual and organizational capacity to conduct high-quality evaluations of education interventions that are designed in accordance with evaluation standards identified by IES’s What Works Clearinghouse. Sponsored by IES’s National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), this program supports NCEE’s larger mission to encourage the conduct and use of scientifically valid education research and evaluation throughout the United States.

NCEE is announcing one competition under its Strengthening Program Evaluation Capacity (SPEC) program: Building Evidence of Effectiveness of Strategies to Increase Postsecondary Student Success (PS) Network (ALN 84.429A). Through this program, IES is seeking evaluation teams to join the new Building Evidence of Effectiveness of Strategies to Increase Postsecondary Student Success (SPEC–PS) Network.

Evaluation teams will (1) engage in a series of IES-sponsored technical assistance activities that will strengthen their capacity to design and conduct rigorous evaluations of a proposed postsecondary student success intervention, (2) implement the proposed intervention at more than one institution that participates in programs authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, and (3) conduct an independent evaluation of the intervention once implemented that includes an examination of the impact of the intervention on HEA program participants.

Evaluation teams must consist of employees at (1) State higher education agencies and/or (2) consortia of 2-year or 4-year institutions of higher education. Interventions proposed to be implemented and evaluated under this grant program must be allowable under one or more programs authorized by the HEA and the evaluations must examine the impact of the intervention on HEA program participants. Additional information, including about eligible evaluation teams and interventions, is provided in the request for applications (RFA).

You may submit applications to more than one of the FY 2025 research grant programs offered through the Department, including those offered through IES as well as those offered through other offices and programs within the Department. However, you may submit only one application to the IES grant program announced here. If you submit multiple similar applications, IES will determine whether and which applications will be accepted for review and/or will be eligible for funding.

Types of Awards: Cooperative agreements.

Estimated Range of Awards: Up to $1,000,000 for the entire project period of 3 years.