It’s definitely wintertime here in Minnesota. Once again my thoughts go to those who need special help. To me, shelter is the most important necessity in these cold months. My boys and I live in an apartment and although we would love to have a home some day, I realize we are fortunate to have a warm, safe place to sleep at night. So in the afterglow of Thanksgiving, let’s all consider what we do have. This Grant Gazing is going to be a little different; I am going to ask you to do a little funding of your own.

At this time of year there are so many ways to give a little something of ourselves to help make the day better for someone else. A few of the many giving opportunities are listed below:

• Toys for Tots – drop offs in many locations.
• Salvation Army – you know the drill, visit the bell ringers and donate to the little red pot.
• Subway Blanket Collection (on Dec. 10) – you even get a free sub with a donation! Your gift will go to Bridging, Inc.
• Children’s Hospitals and Clinics - bring in your gift by Dec. 15th.
• Operation Minnesota Nice - don’t forget the troops!
• American Red Cross - give blood, it doesn’t cost you a dime but it is priceless.
• Minnesota Hunger Partners- the local food shelves are always in need of supplies.

The suggestions above are linked to Minnesota groups, but these organizations and many more like them and exist all over. Thanks for any help you can provide.

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This is the one year anniversary for Grant Gazing and the 50th blog of the series! It seems we never stop and celebrate accomplishments so I thought it would be nice to note this benchmark. I also want to acknowledge all you hard-working grant seekers who are out there looking for the opportunities that will bring about a new program or support a worthy cause. I hope this blog is helping in some way. I would love to hear from anyone who applied for and received funding from an opportunity they found in Grant Gazing. That would make my day.

This week’s pick: The Brookdale Foundation works to enhance services to grandparents and others who have taken on parenting of children whose biological parents are unable to do so.

Through their Relatives as Parents Program (RAPP) the Foundation awards seed grants to local agencies and state public agencies to “provide accessible support groups and other supportive services to relative caregivers and the children in their care; encourage cooperation and collaboration among various service delivery systems; ensure the development, expansion, and future continuity of local services; and create replicable models of service.”

Up to fifteen local and three regional programs will be selected to receive grants. Guidelines are targeted to tax-exempt, 501©3 applicant organization. The deadline is January 10, 2008 for local proposals and February 8, 2008 for state proposals.

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Hi friends and colleagues! We are wishing you a happy and wonderful Thanksgiving. I learned a new song at my daughter's "Special Person's Day" (I love Kindergarten) that sums up the joy of the holiday (sung to the tune of frere jacques):

Corn bread muffins
Chestnut stuffin'
Pumpkin pie
Two feet high
We were much thinner
Before we came to dinner
Me oh my, Me oh my

Enjoy the season -- and for those of you in Minnesota, enjoy the snow!

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As a former Girl Scout, I fondly remember participating in camp activities. From sing-a-longs to arts and crafts, from hiking to making s’mores at the camp fire, I thought I knew it all. I recently learned that I was mistaken. While reading through a year-end report provided by a uniquely ME! council, I came across an activity that I had somehow missed in my camping days… Armpit Fudge. You read that right. Naturally, I was intrigued when I read about this activity that somehow evaded my camping experiences as a girl. Through a quick web search, I learned that this no-bake fudge is made by combining ingredients in a sealable plastic bag and then placing the bag under the arm until the ingredients blend together to make fudge. We can’t stop smiling about this dessert at the Improve Group. If this strikes your fancy, I found some recipes here and here. Please let us know if you try it out!

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Congratulations to Growth and Justice for the well-received and highly informative "Smart Investments in Minnesota’s Students" Education Summit held at the Minnesota History Center on Monday, November 12, 1007. The event brought together a large and engaged group to learn from economists about where Minnesotan’s might best invest to improve education for all students.

Improve Group staff Leah Goldstein Moses, Rebecca Stewart and Susan Murphy, were excited to have a role in the day’s events by moderating the afternoon’s panels on early education, K-12 and out-of-school time. Each panel included the economists who presented papers on smart investments and State Legislators and Representatives who are involved education for Minnesotans. The discussion in was lively, positive and created clarity on the morning’s presentations.

Although Growth and Justice focused on information sharing (hoping to build consensus over the next several months), there seemed to be consensus around a few key issues:

1. Effectiveness seems to be better defined by volume rather than degree. For example, an increase in the number of students who reach proficiency on a test is more important than an increase in the average score on that test.

2. Making a difference in the number of students who graduate from high school has both economic and ethical value. There are economic benefits to the individual, state and federal systems (see p. 30 and 34 of the summary report), and one of the political presenters made the statement that we should be concerned not just with public education but the education of the public.

3. Even very costly programs can be cost-effective if they make a great change in educational attainment and matriculation.

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If you are a regular reader of Grant Gazing (and I hope you are) you will have noticed my mentioning the love our whole Improve Group staff has for literature. Evaluation work seems to attract “bookworms” since it requires copious literature and document reviews as well as the need to read to stay current on the issues of the day.

To break up all that fact-finding our staff also enjoys a good fiction or a biography or a little adventurous reading which is why this week’s funder is right up our alley. I was very pleased to find this grant that encourages readers and spreads excitement about the written word.

This weeks’ pick: The James Patterson Pageturner Awards are grants of varying amounts given out to “to people, companies, schools and other institutions that find original and effective ways to spread the excitement of books and reading.”

Legal residents of the United States or Canada are eligible. You may nominate yourself or another individual, school or organization. Nomination forms must be submitted by December 9, 2007. You will be notified if you should fill out an application form. The application must be returned by Sunday, December 16th 2007. Grant awards range from $2,500 up to $50,000 and will be announced in March of 2008.

Click here for more information on novelist James Patterson.

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Last week, Marian and I attended the American Evaluation Association’s annual conference in Baltimore. The theme of the conference was “learning to evaluate…evaluating to learn.” Throughout the four-day conference, we were charged to learn new skills and reflect on the many ways that evaluators learn from our clients in the course of our work together. Looking back, I’m amazed at all that I had gained in a few short days.

With over 500 sessions to choose from throughout the four-day conference, we were certainly spoiled for choice. I really enjoyed attending skill building and demonstration sessions where I learned practical applications in the field. I was trained on an alternative to the traditional literature review, how to succinctly tell a program’s story and how to meet the diverse needs of multiple stakeholders. Watch my monthly blog column, research tidbits, in the coming months for brief overviews of these topics.

A definite highlight of my trip was spending time with our client, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) staff. Dr. James Riedel from GSUSA (with some assistance from Marian) presented retrospective pre-test data from the PAVE project in a multi-paper session on alternatives to randomized control trials. It was so exciting to see how the work we had done together in the PAVE project will benefit other evaluators in the field.

Of course, no American Evaluation Association conference would be complete without an opportunity for attendees to evaluate the conference. Attendees were asked to report “key insights” we gained throughout the week. For me, my key insight occurred in a session about evaluation theory. The presenters discussed how evaluators have as much to learn from clients’ expertise as they do from ours. This is precisely why I enjoy evaluation so much; we’re always learning from our clients. I look forward to reflecting on a year’s worth of learning in the field at the 2008 American Evaluation Association conference in Denver!

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Two recent studies have found conflicting conclusions on whether the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is pressuring educators in struggling schools to focus on students who fall just below the passing threshold on state tests (i.e. bubble kids) at the expense of students at the high and low end of the achievement spectrum.

One study, conducted by University of Chicago economists Derek Neal and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, focused on the 421,000 Chicago school district. The study examined two time periods during which the school system was shifting to a testing-and-accountability system that increased pressure on educators to raise test scores. The time periods examined were the introduction of NCLB in 2002 and similar district level reforms in 1996.

In both periods, the study showed that the reforms generated the largest increases in reading and math scores among students in the middle of the pack. However, the lowest-performing students generated no score improvement and high-performing students achieved mixed evidence of score improvement. According to the Chicago economists, these results suggest that the choice of the proficiency standard in these accountability systems determines the amount of time that teachers devote to students of different ability levels (i.e. ‘education triage’).

Conversely, a study conducted by Vanderbilt University researcher Matthew G. Springer examined three years of test-score data on 300,000 students in an unnamed Western state. The study divided the students into 20 groups based on their test scores.

Springer found that schools identified as having fallen short of their performance goals succeeded in raising achievement for the entire range of students at risk of failing, without sacrificing the academic progress of the most gifted students. Springer concluded that the students did not show evidence that educational triage is taking place.

Since both NCLB and research of its effects on student achievement are relatively new, I think more research needs to be conducted to indicate conclusive trends of what may be going on in schools nationwide. Specifically, studies across different sized school districts with different racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and disability subgroups of students in different regions of the country.

Do you have anything to add from your experience working in education? I invite comments on this subject.

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I think one of the most important things we can do for our youth is to educate and engage them in something beyond their own world. Volunteering, doing community service or just joining in and participating in a club or organization will give them a better view of themselves and where they fit in the world. Today’s funding opportunity is a unique grant to help replicate youth engagement experiences and promote participation in Global Youth Service Day (April 25-27, 2008).

This week’s pick: The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in cooperation with Youth Service America is offering grants of $2,000 to applicants at “local, state, or national organizations that are part of a national network, organization, or broader coalition of organizations and want to replicate their successful youth engagement experience (for youth ages 5-25) throughout that network.”

Those interested in applying should be able to answer questions such as: why it has been beneficial to include youth in their organization’s work; how you will build on the success of your program; and how your work will be sustained or gain momentum throughout the year.

Applicants must be located in the United States and should plan to use Global Youth Service Day as a primary vehicle to engage youth in the issue they are addressing through their initiative. Submissions for this grant need to be sent in by November 30, 2007. Application information can be accessed here.

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Recently I traveled to Denver to visit a friend and do some outdoor hiking. This was the first time I have traveled to Denver. As an evaluator, I wanted to learn what makes Denver so unique. As I familiarized myself with the city and its surrounding area, the whole experience left me quite impressed. A whole list of things I observed, including the State Capitol, the Federal Reserve, the local cultural institutions and the Rocky Mountains are things that a guy from Duluth is simply not used to.

The State Capitol is beautiful historic building where beautiful murals, chandeliers and a hall of Presidential portraits line the halls underneath this golden dome building. The local art galleries and history museums were also very interesting to explore because much of it celebrates life in the West.

What really impressed me about the city of Denver is the historic Lower Downtown, or “LoDo” area. The 16th street mall runs through blocks of restaurants, art galleries, restaurants, local shops and bookstores. I learned that the well-renowned Tattered Cover Bookstore is located at the end of the mall. I learned that the bookstore is locally-owned and famous for the extensive knowledge of its staff of books in pretty much every genre.

But the most memorable part of my trip was the hike to Lost Lake near Rocky Mountain National Park. I hiked up to an elevation of 10,000 feet to an abandoned mine. The view from that mine was breathtaking as you can see (post picture). What a memorable time.

The lesson I took away from this trip is that I should travel to new places more often. Additionally, it was interesting to me how thoughtful evaluation can enhance experiences and set future directions. I would welcome our blog reader’s suggestions for locations I should visit.

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