Northern Illinois University

NIU Outreach Regional Development Institute

External Evaluation & Assessment

RDI offers customized services that assist school districts, state agencies, community colleges, universities, not-for-profits, businesses, and community-based organizations in designing and conducting needs assessments and third-part, external evaluation for grant proposals and projects.

Highly qualified experts provide a wide range of support, from the initial stages of project development through the dissemination of the findings. RDI is ready to serve you in several ways: 

  • External, third-party evaluation of federal, state, and other grants
  • Needs assessments and environmental scans
  • Evaluation plans for proposals and grants
  • Logic model design
  • Data analysis and reporting services
  • Survey, test and instrument selection and development
  • Customized, applied research projects

RDI projects include the statewide evaluations of the 21st Century Community Learning Center and the Comprehensive School Reform grants and external evaluations for multiple National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, and Illinois Math and Science Partnership grants.

RDI's customized evaluation, data analysis, and research projects range from one-day to multiple year endeavors. 

Contact

Penny Billman
Evaluation & Assessment Specialist, NIU Outreach
Phone: (815) 753-0928
E-mail: pbillman@niu.edu