Ongoing Evaluations
The MELI Unit conducts numerous evaluations per year to inform stakeholders of both ECA program successes as well as areas where modifications may be necessary. To increase the utility of ECA evaluation reports, MELI works closely with program offices to select programs for evaluation and continually engages them throughout the evaluation process. This collaboration ensures the evaluations are useful to the program teams and provides early insight into findings.
Alumni Photo Exhibit Evaluation
ECA's Office of Alumni Affairs is partnering with Photoville to present "Impact of Exchange: Stories from U.S. Exchange Alumni", an open-air photography exhibition that will run in multiple cities (in geographic regions that are underrepresented and underserved with regard to exchange program participation) around the United States from 2023–2024. The exhibition aims to increase local communities’ awareness of their fellow Americans' experiences in other countries and increase more diverse participation in ECA’s exchange programs. In conjunction with this photo exhibition, the MELI Unit plans to conduct research utilizing the PhotoVoice methodology to learn directly from alumni experiences and attendees about how exchange programming expands Americans’ understanding of other cultures and provides lasting skills and experiences.
Systems-Level Effects of Exchange Programs Study
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ (ECA) Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Innovation (MELI) Unit has embarked on a research project to understand “systems-level” effects – programmatic impacts that go beyond the participants themselves and have a wider effect on their communities, institutions, and home countries on a broad scale (such as programs being linked to national policy change and improved relations with the United States). The study’s main objective is to estimate system-level outcomes of exchange experiences, with a particular focus on understanding the contributions of ECA foreign exchange participants to the development of their home countries. This research will be a unique and systematic examination of such effects over decades of ECA programming, spanning the last six decades, dating back to 1961 when the Fulbright–Hays Act (officially known as the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act) was written and a Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs was established in the Department of State.
Please send questions and comments to ecaevaluation@state.gov.