Technical Services
Higher Learning Lab offers research, evaluation, and technical assistance to schools, districts, nonprofits, and institutions working to improve outcomes for vulnerable students. As a 501(c)(3), we approach every partnership with a focus on mission alignment—not billable hours. Our work spans K–12 and higher education, and we specialize in the kinds of applied questions that matter most to practitioners: What’s working? For whom? And what should we do next?
Program Evaluation
We help partners understand whether their programs are achieving what they set out to do—and why. Our evaluations draw on both numbers and narratives: outcome tracking, survey design, focus groups, classroom observations, and document analysis. The result is a clear picture of program strengths, gaps, and next steps that stakeholders at every level can act on.
Typical engagements include: academic program review, grant-funded program evaluation, student services assessment, and compliance-oriented outcome reporting for funders.
Research Partnerships
We collaborate with universities, school districts, foundations, and community organizations on studies designed to inform real decisions. Whether the question calls for a needs assessment, an equity audit, or a multi-site qualitative study, we handle design, data collection, analysis, and reporting—so our partners can focus on implementation.
Capabilities include: needs assessments, environmental scans, equity audits, qualitative and mixed-methods studies, and research synthesis and literature review.
Grant Writing and Technical Assistance
We provide technical assistance for organizations seeking or managing education-related grants. This includes support with proposal development, logic model design, evaluation plan writing, and compliance documentation. Our experience as a grant partner means we understand both sides of the table—what funders expect and what organizations need to deliver.
Ready to discuss a partnership? Get in touch.
Looking for training rather than evaluation? Our founder, Genevive Bjorn, Ed.D., leads CERIC Method workshops on critically reading research literature for graduate programs, faculty, and libraries.
How Services Support Free Resources
Revenue from our contract services helps subsidize the free resources we publish for the broader education community. When an institution partners with HiLL, the impact extends far beyond that single engagement—it helps fund the guides, briefs, and literature reviews that practitioners everywhere rely on. Individual donors are part of this same ecosystem. Learn how your gift keeps our resources free.