Impacts of the Education-Related Network-Based Projects

Kozma 9552496这项政策研究的目标是为国家科学基金会的教育网络基础设施计划提供：(1)研究NIE投资于基于网络的项目的影响的概念性框架，(2)资源分配的政策选项，以及(3)评估NIE计划及其项目影响的方法建议。这些备选方案和建议将对新能源机构和其他资助基于网络的项目的机构有用。对NIE资金在不同类型项目之间的分配以及与其他NII项目的关系进行分析，可以发现冗余、缺口和新出现的需求。在更大的NII背景下对NIE投资组合的性质进行评估，可以揭示利用NIE在追求教育改革方面的投资的潜在强大的合作伙伴关系。评估建议将帮助NIE计划工作人员就其评估计划向建议者提供建议，评估建议的质量，并监督项目的执行。改进的项目形成性和终结性评估计划也将增加项目成功的可能性，并使评估NIE的影响变得更加高效和廉价，当需要评估该计划的时候。这些目标将通过以下七个步骤实现：(1)SRI工作人员将与NIE和其他相关方案的工作人员会面，以确定政策和评估问题，并确定将为该项目工作的国家专家小组；(2)SRI工作人员将提出并完善一个概念框架，描述基于网络的项目如何影响教育改革，并向NIE工作人员提供信息，说明相对于其他联邦计划和私营部门的投资，其资源在整个框架内的分配情况；(3)SRI工作人员将为具有不同目标和活动的NIE项目制定不同的评价标准和方法；(4)在这些分析的基础上，SRI工作人员将就资金选择和评估指导方针提出初步建议；(5)这些建议将由科学、教育技术、政策和计划评估专家小组审查和修改；(6)将召开一次国家政策会议，审查和讨论这些建议；(7)SRI工作人员将在这些讨论的基础上，向NIE工作人员撰写最终建议。***

Kozma 9552496 The goals of this policy study are to provide the National Science Foundation's Networking Infrastructure for Education program with: (1) a conceptual framework for studying the impacts of NIE investments in network-based projects, (2) policy options for resource allocations, and (3) recommendations for approaches to evaluating the impact of the NIE program and its projects. These options and recommendations will be useful both to NIE and to other agencies funding network-based projects. An analysis of the distribution of the NIE funds across types of programs and in relation to other NII projects can reveal redundancies, gaps, and emerging needs. An assessment of the nature of the NIE portfolio within the larger NII context can illuminate potentially powerful partnerships for leveraging NIE's investments in pursuit of education reform. Evaluation recommendations will help NIE program staff advise proposers on their evaluation plans, assess the quality of proposals, and monitor the execution of projects. Improved plans for formative and summative evaluation of projects will also increase the likelihood of project success and make it more efficient and inexpensive to assess the impact of NIE, when it comes time to evaluate that program. These goals will be accomplished in the following seven steps: (1) SRI staff will meet with the staff of NIE and other related programs to identify policy and evaluation issues and identify a panel of national experts that will work on the project; (2) SRI staff will propose and refine a conceptual framework that describes the ways in which networkbased projects can affect educational reform and provide NIE staff with information on the distribution of their resources across the framework relative to the investments of other federal programs and those of the private sector; (3) SRI staff will formulate different evaluation criteria an methodologies for NIE projects with different goals and activities; (4) on th e basis of these analyses, SRI staff will make preliminary recommendations regarding funding alternatives and evaluation guidelines; (5) these recommendations will be reviewed and modified by a panel of experts in science, education technology, policy, and program evaluation; (6) a national Policy Conference will be convened to review and discuss the recommendations; (7) on the basis of these discussions, SRI staff will write up the final recommendations to NIE staff. ***