Northeastern University Public Evaluation Lab works collaboratively with organizations to determine their unique evaluation needs and provide appropriate evaluation assistance.
Examples of Services Provided to Community Partners Include:
NU-PEL supports the evaluation needs of faculty and staff from across Northeastern University’s global community.
Types of assistance available to internal Northeastern partners include:
Since 2009, I have been working on non-profit evaluations in the local Boston area. My work is deeply collaborative, partnering with community organizations to better understand processes and impacts of educational interventions on children and families. The Northeastern Public Evaluation Lab (NU-PEL) expands my capacity to meet the evaluation needs of local non-profits. Through consultation expertise, methodological workshops, direct student supervision and software training, NU-PEL supports interdisciplinary evaluation teams that work directly with community partners as they seek to better understand their program’s impact. Beyond practical and logistical support, NU-PEL provides a home base for evaluation work at Northeastern. This evaluation hub connects undergraduate and graduate students with faculty and staff who are deeply passionate about campus-community collaborations.
Northeastern University Public Evaluation Lab offers students at the undergraduate and graduate levels from across the University an opportunity to gain knowledge, skills, and hands-on experience in the growing field of evaluation.
Examples of opportunities provided to students include:
I am a Doctoral student in Public Policy and I have been working with NU-PEL in various student research and teaching assistant roles. My curiosity about understanding the effectiveness of policies, in real life, informed by data, attracted me to NU-PEL. By working with Dr. Yom and the multigenerational teams, I have gained a range of methodological skills including survey design, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, developing evaluation plans, conducting literature reviews, and honing my research writing skills. Additionally, collaboratively working with a wide range of stakeholders has been very enriching in terms of working in small and large interdisciplinary team-based settings. I am very happy with my experiences so far with NU-PEL and would highly recommend NU-PEL to people interested in learning and building capacity in evaluation.
Working with NU-PEL and Dr. Yom has been very informative and rewarding. I have learned a lot about what goes into evaluation work, ranging from the understanding the methodologies behind an evaluation project, to setting up and conducting focus groups and surveys, to analyzing the data collected, and much more. Dr. Yom and the NU-PEL team has been very supportive, while also allowing me to be independent and develop my evaluation skills. I am very grateful for the two years I have been able to work with NU-PEL for my both my practicum and capstone!
