NASA Informal Education: Final Report – A Descriptive Analysis of NASA’s Informal Education Portfolio: Preliminary Case Studies

As part of its continuing effort to maximize efficiency by assessing the effectiveness of its efforts, NASA’s Office of Education contracted with Abt Associates in July 2009 to evaluate the Informal Education Program. The goals of the evaluation are twofold: (1) to gain insight into its investment in informal education; and (2) to clarify existing distinctions between its informal education and outreach efforts. The evaluation findings provide descriptive information about all the projects in the NASA’s education portfolio affiliated with Outcome 3 (Informal Education) and selected Outcome 2 (Elementary and Secondary Education) that serve the informal education community. Additionally, the evaluation findings provide detailed information about five specific NASA-selected informal education projects, partnerships, or activities, and pay particular attention to their progress toward stated goals, use of NASA resources and materials, reach into their respective communities, development of strategic partnerships, and sustainability. The variety of projects selected allows NASA to document a range of activities in its informal education portfolio, to better understand their implementation and effectiveness, and to ultimately inform future funding decisions. Appendix includes survey.