Articles #Evaluation

This report describes the results of an external impact evaluation of the New Mexico Math‐Science Partnerships (MSP) program after two years of implementation. The results of analyses of New Mexico state mathematics assessment scores, teacher professional development logs, content assessments, and student and teacher background and demographic information revealed statistically significant but practically non‐significant improvements in latent growth trajectories of middle school students’ mathematics achievement after two years of exposure to teachers participating in the MSP program.

The purposes of this evaluation were to determine if a school-based School-to- Entrepreneurship program impacts key knowledge and behavioral outcomes associated with entrepreneurial thinking and planning in middle-school aged youth participants, and to synthesize the findings across two years of evaluation to determine if Kauffman’s investment in STE programming strengthens entrepreneurial thinking and action in youth.

This report is the first publication about an ongoing, large-scale evaluation of a District-wide, comprehensive school reform initiative underway in Kansas City, Kansas called First Things First (FTF). The initiative is directed and implemented by a partnership of three organizations: the Kansas City, Kansas School District; the Institute for Research and Reform in Education – developer of the FTF framework and primary technical assistance provider to the District; and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation – FTF’s major private supporter. The FTF model is an example of the newer breed of comprehensive reform, called “theory of change” initiatives, which took shape in the 1990s as a promising approach to systems change. The theory of change approach entails specifying and sequencing each step required to achieve the desired systemic outcomes, which allows for early, intermediate and long-term progress and outcomes to be identified and monitored over the course of a reform.