Home » Current Programs

Education and Community Development Evaluation and Research

Evaluation
Our work in education and community development is based on best practices; thus we try to evaluate our practices and practices we find elsewhere based on thoughtfully developed evaluations. Although this program is in its infancy and takes time to carry out, we want to ensure that our work and your support makes a difference. Through basic educational evaluations, interviews, and community surveys, we work to provide the best possible services to meet the needs of the broader community. We know we would be wasting everyone’s resources without honest and appropriate reviews of our programs’ effectiveness. We are just beginning the systematic process of evaluations this year now that our presence is established in the community.

Research
Ben Schwartz, one of our returning volunteers, will be conducting research on methods of encouraging teacher and student retention. We are looking at the variables that influence why a teacher or student decides to come or leave school. Additonally, we hope to research the effectiveness of methods to encourage education among girls and other traditionally unempowered groups.

Another topic of research relates to the role of education in a migrant farming community. We hope to find out the effects of education on migrant workers and their families and better understand the specific variables that influence the decision making in a migrant family about when and where to relocate. Because nearly a quarter of the world’s population is in the transition from rural to urban life, this research is particularly pertinent. We want to target the role education plays in making this transition.

View another current program.