AEA Calendar Through June 4, 2010

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The AEA/CDC Summer Evaluation Institute - June 13-16 in Atlanta, Georgia
The Institute offers over 50 training sessions from which to choose, as well as three keynotes from nationally-known speakers and networking opportunities throughout.

AEA365 Blog Offers Tip-a-Day From and For Evaluators
Over the coming month, expect to see contributiosn from the likes of Tom Kelly, Sally Bond, Sal Alaimo, and Bonnie Stabile. Read it online on the blog website at http://aea365.org/blog/ or

Stay up to date regarding current events, tools, and resources
Each week, we compile Headlines and Resources from across the field and post them each Sunday to AEA's listserv EVALTALK

Data in, Brilliance Out with Tableau - Nina Potter

Audience: General Audience

Description: Nina Potter of San Diego State University will demonstrate Tableau. Living their slogan of "Data in. Brilliance Out" Tableau is incredibly easy to use and incredibly powerful as a data analysis and visualization suite. Used by the Wall Street Journal, UNESCO, Universities, and Research Firms, Tableau comes in three versions - from free Tableau Public to site-wide Tableau server. Nina is not a salesperson, but rather an avid user and evaluator who will demonstrate Tableau's capabilities and provide examples of how she has employed it in her work.

Register: Free for AEA members - but you must pre-register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/925179968

Making the Most of Your Membership for Graduate Students and Novice Evaluators - Susan Kistler

Audience: Graduate Students and Those Just Entering the Field, and in particular those who have recently joined AEA

Description: Susan Kistler, AEA's Executive Director, will walk you through how to make the most of your membership including resources available to you only as members, how to use your membership to save money (potentially a lot of money!), how to get involved in order to build your leadership skills and professional network, how to use the career center to find work, internship opportunities with AEA, and information about the Graduate Student and New Evaluators Topical Interest Group.

Register: Free for AEA members - but you must pre-register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/182342577

What Works in Education: Using the What Works Clearinghouse Website - Scott Cody

Sponsor: PreK-12 Educational Evaluation TIG

Description: The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) is a central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education. Using a set of research design standards, the WWC reviews and summarizes existing research on the effectiveness of education programs, products, and practices. Scott Cody, Deputy Director of the WWC, will demonstrate how to get the most out of the WWC website. Learn how to locate this important information for decision-making in education: what classroom practices are supported by research, what is the effectiveness of education interventions, and what is the quality of research design seen in influential studies.

Register: Free for AEA members - but you must pre-register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/962115424

Hallie Preskill Serves as Thought Leader for the Week on the Discussion Forum

Description: Hallie Preskill served as the AEA President during 2007 when we came together to discuss "Evaluation and Learning" at the annual conference in Baltimore. She has completed two terms on the AEA Board of Directors, served as the Editor of the American Journal of Evaluation's Teaching of Evaluation Column, and led the association's Professional Development Committee. While on the faculty at Claremont Graduate University. the University of New Mexico, and the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota), she taught graduate level courses on program evaluation, organizational learning, consulting, training design and delivery, and appreciative inquiry. A prolific writer, Hallie has authored or co-authored numerous journal articles and texts, including Building Evaluation Capacity: 72 Activities for Teaching and Training (with Darlene Russ-Eft), Reframing Evaluation Through Appreciative Inquiry(with Tessie Catsambas), Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations (with Rosalie T. Torres), and Evaluation Strategies for Communicating and Reporting (with Rosalie T. Torres and Mary Piontek). She was the recipient of the 2002 Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Practice Award, and the 2004 University of Illinois Distinguished Alumni Award. Today, Hallie leads a team of consultants at FSG Social Impact Advisors, providing evaluation expertise over a wide range of topic areas in a variety of sectors.

What Works in Education: The Research Design Standards of the What Works Clearinghouse - Neil Seftor

Sponsor: PreK-12 Educational Evaluation TIG

Description: The core of the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) is the research design standards, which identify those studies with the strongest causal validity. Neil Seftor, Deputy Director of the WWC, will provide an overview of the WWC's standards for randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental designs. The session will cover the design and reporting requirements researchers must demonstrate to meet WWC standards. It will also describe statistical adjustments made by the WWC to ensure findings can be compared across studies.

Register: Free for AEA members - but you must pre-register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/201438713

Using Wordle for Qualitative Data Exploration, Idea Generation, and Reporting - SaraJoy Pond and Susan Kistler

Audience: Those working with qualitative data

Description: You've probably seen word clouds all over the place (here's a great example looking at Presidential speeches). SaraJoy Pond of TippingBucket and AEA's own Susan Kistler will walk you through making word clouds with Wordle and demonstrate its use for evaluation. Wordle can help you to explore qualitative data, reflect on your own writing, and create great graphics for reports and presentations. And, Wordle is free and so easy to use that you will leave this demonstration completely ready to make your own clouds.

Register: Free for AEA members - but you must pre-register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/429990913

Introduction to Using Geographic Information Systems for Evaluation - Duncan Meyers

Audience: General Audience

Description: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software is a tool that allows users to analyze and display spatially based data. GIS software offers a mechanism through which evaluators can visualize data to reveal relationships, patterns, or trends. It can help evaluators answer research questions, solve problems, and create dialogue as it allows data to be presented in a manner that is quickly understood and easily shared. In this presentation Duncan Meyers of the University of South Carolina will a) demonstrate basic features of GIS software, b) show examples of its uses, and c) provide resources for further learning.

Register: Free for AEA members - but you must pre-register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/958169280

Deadline for Submission of AEA Awards Nominations

Nominations are now being accepted for the seven American Evaluation Association Awards. Please take this opportunity to acknowledge outstanding colleagues and outstanding work. Through identifying those who exemplify the very best in the field, we honor the practitioner and advance the discipline.

Details: Learn more online at http://www.eval.org/aboutus/awards.asp

We're here to help! Contact Heidi or Kate in the AEA office at info@eval.org or 1-508-748-3326