Notes from the field
Short, practical writing on the parts of grant-funded work that are hardest to get right — proposals, evaluations, and the data underneath. No jargon for its own sake.
- Evaluation April 19, 2026 · 8 min read
The doing gap in educational evaluation
A pattern from thirty-two years of hiring: many education researchers can frame a study but cannot build the survey, clean the data, or write the report. Why that is, why it is finally changing, and what it means when you are hiring an evaluator.
Read → - Grant writing April 17, 2026 · 7 min read
What grant reviewers actually look for
The five categories almost every federal review rubric weights most heavily — and the specific ways proposals fall short in each, from twenty years of reading and writing them.
Read → - Evaluation April 10, 2026 · 6 min read
Why you need a logic model even when the funder doesn't require one
A logic model is not a deliverable — it is an argument. When it is missing, every downstream piece of the evaluation drifts. Here's the small version that actually gets used.
Read → - Data March 24, 2026 · 8 min read
Seven lessons on data misalignment in education
Three decades of education data tell a consistent story: the numbers programs collect, the numbers districts collect, and the numbers funders want don't line up. Why that happens — and what to do about it.
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We write Insights the way we talk with clients — plainly, from experience, with real specifics. If there's a topic you'd like us to cover, tell us. Many Insights start as a question from a program director that turned out to have a longer answer than an email could hold.
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Every Insight is rooted in actual client work. If something here rings true for your program, we'd be glad to talk through it specifically.