The evaluator for the Maryland Tech Consortium is ORC Macro,  a large consulting firm with a specialization in research and program evaluation. 

ORC Macro has been involved in the MTC project from the very beginning of the project.  A challenge in evaluating the MTC project has been that it is an ambitious and complex undertaking.  This has meant that project partners have had to rethink some activities and sharpen the focus of the project at several points along the way.  This has often had implications for the evaluation, which has had to adjust to changes in project goals, objectives, and activities and to changing situations in the 21 target schools in Baltimore, Montgomery, and Prince George’s counties.

The project, as originally proposed, was extremely far reaching and had broad goals.  The evaluators worked closely with project staff to:

§         Refine the goals and objectives for the project

§         Create a logic model that specifies the relationship of inputs to intermediate and longer-term outcomes

§         Make sense of how the various professional development activities carried out by the MTC partners were related to each other and contributed to achieving project goals. (See the MTC Professional Development Pathways graphic.)