Sun Associates

04/15/2020

New Models for a New Environment

What do educators need to do to prepare for the changed educational environment that we are going to face between now and at latest next fall? This is something that every educator – teacher, administrator, policy-maker – should be asking themselves now.

03/25/2020

We Know What to Do With Lemons (Not that there's anything wrong with lemons)

Sun Associates’ work with school districts around the subject of digital learning has suddenly moved from the realm of “someday it would be nice” to the immediate here and now. Let’s celebrate existing achievements and get ready to think about the future.

10/25/2018

On-Board for a Fascinating Journey

Starting this month, Sun Associates will have the unique opportunity to put to the test the idea that meaningful change takes time. As the external evaluator of a new seven-year project focusing on a specific cohort of Fitchburg, MA middle school students, we starting what promises to be a fascinat

09/18/2018

Growing STEM Awareness for the Youngest Students

STEM interest and skills start well before Grade 3 and can be developed via non-traditional curricula and experiences. Learn about a project that Sun Associates is evaluating that uses school gardens to develop STEM interest in PreK - Grade 2 students.

07/07/2017

Come visit us at the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents (M.A.S.S.) 2017 Executive Institute, July 19 - 20 on Cape Cod.

http://www.massupt.org/pages/MASS/Professional_Development/Executive_Institute

07/07/2017

Exciting times for the advancement of personalized learning initiatives!

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and pediatrician Priscilla Chan will invest hundreds of millions of dollars per year in a new, "whole-child" vision of personalized learning.

03/28/2017

https://www.sun-associates.com/blog/2017/3/27/connecting-the-dots-educational-technology-to-digital-learning-to-personalized-learning

If we understand that personalized learning is the pedagogical objective of
digital and blended learning, then it follows that in an evaluation context
our goal is to determine the extent to which a district has constructed and
operationalized a student-centered, personalized learning environm...

02/20/2017

https://www.sun-associates.com/blog/2017/2/20/open-educational-resources-1

At the K-12 level, OER has begun to gain traction – there is no doubt that
schools would rather provide current academic materials at low or no cost
to the district rather than paying huge amounts of money for textbooks that
quickly are outdated and need to be replaced on a regular basis.

05/05/2016

http://www.sun-associates.com/blog/2016/5/5/balancing-visionary-resources-and-the-realities-of-access

Our recent experience evaluating the development and implementation of a
powerful new digital resource from the Boston Public Library's Norman B.
Leventhal Map Center brings to mind the need to balance the exciting
potential of visionary resources with present day limits on teacher and
stude...

04/27/2016

http://www.sun-associates.com/blog/2016/4/11/discuss-and-document

Regardless of your project’s scope, there are a few good common sense steps
that your team can take to set the stage for effective evaluation. Planning
effectively for project evaluation involves making time for discussing and
clarifying your project goals, defining expectations - indicators - for
project outcomes, and giving some thought as to what data you want to
collect to document those outcomes. Get started on that process with some
simple tools for identifying discussion participants and starting to
clarify goals and indicators.