Quality Research Leads to
Quality Solutions
Your only education partner that provides customized labor market data and navigation, career exploration tools, and mathematics and career-connected learning curricula.
Quality Measures
NS4ed integrates research that impacts K-12 education and leads to practice in the classroom. We value our product and service evaluations and regularly have professional entities assessing our work, including the Pathway2Careers Program. As a matter of best practices, we invest in thorough, professional reviews of our products and services because NS4ed is committed to excellence.
Presently, diverse evaluations assess topics of comprehensive learning, effective teaching, and student experience include:
- Learning List
- University of Louisville, CRIMSTED
- Carnegie Mellon University, METALS Project
- Apex Evaluation
- Learning List is a Center within the College of Education and Human Development. It is well-known for teacher preparation and creating mathematics and science education doctoral programs that “are nationally competitive.” The Center promotes interdisciplinary work and collaboration between University of Louisville Engineering and Arts and Sciences faculty and educators in local school districts.
- This assessment conducts a standard-by-standard review of the alignment of the material to standards and an analysis of the curriculum’s technology compatibility. To access NS4ed’s review, contact Learning List for subscription information.
- CRIMSTED is a Center within the College of Education and Human Development. It is well-known for teacher preparation and creating mathematics and science education doctoral programs that “are nationally competitive.” The Center promotes interdisciplinary work and collaboration between University of Louisville Engineering and Arts and Sciences faculty and educators in local school districts.
- This unique evaluation provides valuable data and insight related to NS4ed’s five Pathway2Careers courses: pre-algebra, algebra I, geometry, algebra II – A, algebra II – B. The evaluation team (of Dr. Thomas R. Tretter, Dr. Katherine Marin, and PhD candidate Stephanie White) looked at NS4ed’s work from a different methodology based on the effectiveness of teaching and learning; the scholars focused on teaching approaches and asking how the teacher will use and implement the solutions.
- CRIMSTED’s scholarly team conducted a three-fold evaluation approach to meticulously analyze course application and exploration lessons’ content and examine the courses holistically. CRIMSTED reported that complete math standards are addressed across all P2C courses and recognized four notable curriculum strengths: breadth of career integration; a rich array of career connections of high interest; incorporation of comprehensive mathematical ideas; and systemic integration of engaging mathematical representations.
- Dr. Tretter emphasized, “One unique and high-profile feature of this curriculum across all of the courses is the very systematic and thorough integration of careers into the mathematics.” According to Dr. Tretter, the systematic integration of multiple representations in P2C made for a “powerful way to think about learning mathematics.”
- For More Information: NS4ed. (2022, April). Pathway2Careers (P2C) Math Curriculum evaluation summary: Based on the 71-pg evaluation prepared by the University of Louisville’s Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Teacher Development (CRIMSTED) April 2022 evaluation. From: P2C_Math_Curriculum_Evaluation_Summary.
1. The CMU Master of Educational Technology and Applied Learning (METALS) Program is a rigorous interdisciplinary program of Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Psychology and their Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII). The HCII was founded in 1993, and it brings together researchers in PA and around the world, as they are dedicated to collaboration. Its innovative and interdisciplinary “living laboratory” produces research and assessments to improve relationships between technology, human activity, and society.
2. The evaluation team will specifically research: middle to high school students’ career exploration and perform a qualitative analysis of the P2C platform’s effectiveness and the learners’ experience.
1. Apex believes evaluation empowers organizations to address complicated issues that communities and stakeholders are invested in. Apex deliberately bridges “the gap between data and insight” to provide meaningful assessment.
2. The primary objectives of this evaluation process are for Apex to assess the relationship between the student use of the Pathway2Careers mathematics curricula related to students’: career awareness, attitudes toward mathematics and careers, and mathematical performance.
3. Evaluation also explores teacher and student opinions of the P2C curricula connected to use/implementation and user satisfaction of the curricula experience.
Quality Evaluation Services
NS4ed was built upon the principle of empowering educators with quality solutions to create the best possible curricula, programs, and services that support long-term student success. NS4ed is a valued partner in the education industry and believes that quality research leads to those quality solutions. NS4ed’s founder and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Joseph L. Goins, has worked extensively in educational research and evaluation, specializing in
outcome and process evaluation, cost-effectiveness analysis, matching procedures, and modeling student growth.
Dr. Goins and the NS4ed Evaluation Team were selected for an Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Mid-Phase evaluation for Expanding Access for Early College High Schools. The EIR Mid-Phase is an evidenced-based Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) Tier 1 evaluation and was chosen as the highest-rated application in the country in 2021. The Extending Equity into the Digital Workforce (EEDW) project was developed from this federal evaluation project. It is the first major re-envisioning of Early College High Schools (ECHSs) since their introduction almost 20 years ago. The EEDW project extends the ECHSs model’s commitment to equity by: (1) creating an IT career pathway to build students’ digital skills for today’s workforce; (2) developing the pathway as an online course, available to a potentially unlimited number of students, particularly in rural areas where districts do not have the resources or enrollment to support an onsite IT program; and (3) bringing business partners online (from every industry and across the state of NM) to support and mentor students.
Employing quantitative, qualitative, and community-based research methods, Dr. Goins and NS4ed conduct thorough evaluations designed to gauge short-term and long-term student outcomes for newly implemented innovative school initiatives. Many assessment projects involve research of grades 6-12 student outcomes of
attitudes about college/careers,
attitudes about mathematics and real-world relevancy or applications,
college and career readiness,
high-school completion and graduation,
post-secondary enrollment,
alignment of students’ skills with workforce needs, and
career selection.
Custom evaluations are designed to address program effectiveness, student experience, and to conduct correlation research.
Executive Director of Early College and Leadership Initiatives Dr. Jamisa Williams, Program Manager, Education Services, Kelly Kennedy, MEd, and Sr. Early College Coach Dr. Lenny Howard lead NS4ed’s career-connected learning data analysis and assessments of
K-12 innovative school, educational leadership,
professional learning,
(CTE) faculty/teacher training and evaluation,
early college leadership coaching, and
best practices for new innovative school implementation.
The NS4ed PL Team employs comprehensive strategic program and service evaluations using data collections, student/teacher user surveys, longitudinal studies and other observational studies.
Research Services 4 Education
NS4ed formed a separate nonprofit organization, RS4ed, Inc., in March 2022 to extend its commitment to closing the gap between education and the workplace. RS4ed, Inc. will focus on research initiatives to promote actionable outcomes to bridge the gap between educators, community leaders, and employers. The nonprofit organization seeks to build partnerships developed by research-backed solutions to unlock successful futures for all students and offer various research services.