Techbridge Broad Implementation: 2016-2017 Evaluation Findings from Greater Seattle and Washington, DC

Techbridge Girls’ mission is to help girls discover a passion for science, engineering, and technology (SET). In August 2013, Techbridge Girls was awarded a five-year National Science Foundation grant to scale up its afterschool program from the San Francisco Bay Area to multiple new locations around the United States. Techbridge Girls began offering afterschool programming at elementary and middle schools in Greater Seattle in 2014, and in Washington, DC in 2015.

Education Development Center is conducting the formative and summative evaluation of the project. To assess the implementation and impact of the expansion effort during the fourth year of the grant (2016-2017), qualitative and quantitative data were collected from a variety of stakeholders, including girls who participated in the new programs and non-participating comparison students from the same schools; the parents or guardians of Techbridge students; role models who visited the programs and/or hosted Techbridge Girls field trips at their companies; Techbridge Girls teachers and principals; district representatives; and Techbridge Girls staff. The evaluation team also conducted observations of selected programs.