To deliver a strong ROI in your MS in Measurement and Evaluation degree, AU constructed the program with an expert advisory panel to offer an experiential degree that teaches core competencies, best-practice standards, and industry trends while building your experience with application-based coursework in each class.

The Measurement & Evaluation Program Advisory Council ensures that the curriculum is current, relevant, and reflective of emerging trends in evaluation. It consists of program faculty, alumni, and top evaluation practitioners who have experience evaluating programs for the public, private, and philanthropy sectors, including:

• U.S. Agency for International Development
• The Department of State
• Various state and local Departments of Education
• Abt Associates
• Ford Foundation
• Open Society
• And more

To ensure critical knowledge and experience are attained through the curriculum, AU developed the Professional Studies Experience — a four-phase curriculum model that meets specific guidelines in each phase.

• Core Courses: Work with a cohort of students from a variety of backgrounds and gain the broad-based knowledge today’s employers have deemed most important.
• Practicum/Professional Experience: Gain real-world evaluation and data collection skills as you design and carry out evaluations.
• Electives: Take one program-specific elective tailored to your industry and career goals.
• Capstone: Harness what you’ve learned throughout your program to produce a capstone project.

One of the strongest components of American University’s online Masters in Measurement and Evaluation is the practicum element, where students partner with organizations to plan and carry out evaluations. Six of the ten courses, you’ll take to complete the program require practicum partnerships.

Practicums can be local or global, owing to new advances in conducting evaluations virtually. To complete your practicums, you’ll identify organizational partners, oftentimes with the assistance of faculty. You could partner with a current or former employer or an organization where you’ve volunteered, or network to find a new organization.

Your practicum experiences will vary depending on the particular course you are taking. Different courses will require you to craft logic models and evaluation plans, design and carry out evaluations, and collect, analyze, and visualize qualitative and quantitative data. Through these assignments, you’ll apply different approaches and designs that measure performance, or impact and support equity.

You’ll graduate with the skills and confidence you need to take a leading role in managing measurement and evaluation systems.

At the epicenter of impact, AU’s Washington, D.C. location leverages the proximity of the thriving business, non-profit, NGO, and government sectors so the leaders of today can train the leaders of tomorrow. Partnering with key organizations in the region and around the globe, we’re able to better the human condition, learn from a vast array of experiences, model purposeful leadership, and address society’s current and emerging challenges.

The DC Experience (DCX), an optional on-campus residency, gives you the opportunity to connect with the campus and explore the unique cultural landscape in the nation’s capital. You’ll also immerse yourself in the AU community, enhance your relationships with faculty and other online graduate students, and meet with guest speakers from the evaluation field.

Even with the flexibility of the online format, sometimes the timing isn’t quite right to dedicate your resources to pursue a full degree. To gain the critical knowledge necessary for advancement, learn more about the Graduate Certificate in Project Monitoring and Evaluation. Its four courses include Principles and Theories of Evaluation, Evaluation Approaches and Designs, Evaluation: Qualitative Methods, and Evaluation: Quantitative Methods. When you decide to finish the MS in Measurement and Evaluation, you’ll have just six additional courses to take.