Our Projects
The following are a sample of projects TRE has led. Client or project names may be withheld due to confidentiality agreements.
Service: External Evaluation
TRE provides research and evaluation support for Dr. Natalie King’s Faculty Early Career Development CAREER Award and her Alan T. Waterman Award. Dr. King’s CAREER project has the goal of exploring the ways in which Black girls develop positive STEM identities as they matriculate through secondary education. In addition to her CAREER award, Dr. Natalie S. King was one of the three recipients of the 2023 Alan T. Waterman Award. This award is NSF’s highest honor. TRE serves as the external evaluator for this award collecting data on the impact of the initiatives funded by the $1,000,000 provided by the National Science Foundation.
“TRE keeps a bird’s eye view of the project at all times. They are well-connected with the work and have a great team. The TRE Team asks the right questions to get us where we need to go. They are familiar with our institutions and how to navigate it. TRE is up-to-date with what is happening in the field and helps to move initiatives forward in ways that are relevant.”
Natalie S. King, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Science Education, Georgia State University
Service: Data Manager & Data Visualization
As a growing nonprofit, BCDI – Atlanta recognized the importance of collecting data to showcase the impact of its programs and services. With a small staff, they asked TRE to serve as their data manager to lead their data collection, analysis, and reporting efforts. The first phase of the project included: 1. creating registration forms to learn more about BCDI – Atlanta’s program participants; 2. creating pre and post-surveys to measure the impact of their programs; and 3. standardizing their data collection efforts to collect information about early childhood educators, caregivers, and the community. The second phase of the work includes collecting and analyzing data on a quarterly basis and providing reports and data visualizations for BCDI.
“The data reported for each of our programs and grants has been more robust. In addition, our organization is finally illustrating our impact and telling our story much better than ever before. The detailed data TRE provides informs our team of the BIG picture and enables us to make appropriate decisions on the path forward.Our leaders now have quality data to discuss in stakeholder meetings and affiliate events.”
Bisa Lewis, Ph.D.
Former President, Black Child Development Institute (BCDI) – Atlanta
Service: Data Manager
The Hands On Atlanta Education Team sought out an external partner to gather data about its AmeriCorps program. TRE collects data via semi-annual focus groups and surveys of AmeriCorps members and school partners. The findings provide insight into the health of schools’ partnership with Hands On Atlanta, provide recommendations for improvement, and showcase the impact of the program.
“TRE shows us where we can improve and offers further insight into member satisfaction. As a result of working with TRE, I have seen an improvement in AmeriCorps member relationships.”
Kalin Morphet,
AmeriCorps Operations Coordinator, Hands On Atlanta
Service: External Evaluation
TRE serves as the external evaluator for the National Science Foundations Track 2 NOYCE grant in the Georgia State University College of Education Department of Middle and Secondary Education’s DSPETL Program. The DSPETL scholarship program is designed to strengthen the STEM teacher workforce by supporting cohorts of Teaching Fellows for five years. The major goals of DSPETL are 1. to recruit and prepare STEM professionals to serve as highly-effective teachers in high-need middle and high schools in Fulton and Rockdale counties and 2. to engage STEM professionals in robust and innovative professional learning experiences for their development as teachers and teacher leaders. TRE collects and analyzes data about the teaching fellows and the impact of the program via surveys, focus groups, interviews, artifact analysis, and observations. In addition to providing an annual report, TRE provides recommendations for program improvement and data for research publications.
“TRE has made my job easier by being responsive to our needs as our grant project continues to change, grow, and evolve. TRE has also made our annual project reporting easier.”
Christopher C. Jett, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Mathematics Education Georgia State University
Service: External Evaluation
A unique collaboration between Black Computer Science faculty from three universities, Black Research Support network is a National Science Foundation funded grant designed to provide: 1. mentoring by both Black graduate students and Black faculty, 2. culturally and socially relevant research topics and experiences, 3. Black researcher affinity groups, and 4. a Black researcher speaker series. Through its evaluation, the project will explore the impacts of the collaboration between HBCUs and a PWI on institutional policies, programs, and practices; impacts on faculty; and Black students, graduate school applications, acceptances, and financial awards/support.
“As a result of working with TRE, I have an expert evaluator involved in my project. It has been invaluable as it removes that responsibility from the PIs (Principal Investigators) who can now focus on implementing the project’s goals.”
Dale-Marie Wilson,Ph.D.
Teaching Professor, University of North Carolina – Charlotte
“As a result of working with TRE, I am easily able to take aspects of their reports and use them for our research efforts.”
Gloria Washington, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Computer Science, Howard University
Service: Technical Assistance
The Georgia Statewide Afterschool Network (GSAN) partnered with the Georgia Department of Education to administer $85 million for afterschool and summer learning in Georgia. Funding for the Building Opportunities in Out-of-School Time (BOOST) grants program provided grants and technical assistance to community-based organizations that operate comprehensive out-of-school time programming year-round. GSAN contracted with TRE to provide 6 and 8-week training programs for youth development executives and professionals across the state of Georgia. Participants learned about logic models, standard operating procedures for data collection, using data to showcase their impact and sustain their organization, engaging their organization and stakeholders in conversations about data, and developing a plan for identifying areas for improvement.
“I love working with the TRE team. They were professional, fun and always well prepared. The Designed for Impact Course I took with them was well designed with a good mix of theory and practice. The course taught me how to develop a strong logic model, identify short term and long term outcomes, and design a one pager and plan for a data sharing session.”
Linda Lehmil, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Reach for Excellence