Program Evaluation

Graduate Certificate

Department of Educational Psychology

Designed For

Available exclusively to currently enrolled UT Austin graduate students, this four-course, stackable certificate equips students with the skills to evaluate programs, initiatives and interventions across a variety of fields. Students earn a transcript-recognized credential while gaining practical experience in evaluation planning, data analysis, outcome assessment and the communication of findings that support evidence-based decision-making and organizational improvement.

Career Objective

Graduates with training in program evaluation are well positioned for careers involving:

  • Assessment and Accountability
  • Continuous Improvement and Quality Assurance
  • Educational and Healthcare Research
  • Grant-Funded Program Evaluation
  • Nonprofit and Government Evaluation
  • Program Evaluation
  • Policy Analysis
  • Research and Evaluation Consulting
  • Strategic Planning and Organizational Effectiveness

At a Glance

Eligibility: Currently enrolled UT Austin graduate students

Length of Program: 12 credit hours

Program Location: On Campus 

GRE Required? No

Program Contact

Graduate Program Administrator

How To Apply

Currently enrolled UT Austin graduate students should contact the EDP Graduate Coordinator to discuss eligibility, enrollment and next steps.

Required Courses

Students complete four courses that build competency in evaluation planning, implementation, analysis and reporting: 

EDP 380D Program Evaluation Models and Techniques. Learn how to understand, design and evaluate programs in real-world settings. Explore the theoretical foundations of program evaluation and gain experience using quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods approaches. Analyze how programs work, identify their constraints and outcomes and develop your own proposed evaluation.   

EDP 380C Applied Research Design in Program Evaluation. Learn to communicate complex evaluation ideas, methods and findings clearly to program leaders and participants. Develop a large-scale evaluation proposal that focuses on the research design methods discussed. 

EDP 380C Data Exploration and Visualization in R. Explore R, an open-source platform widely used for data analysis and visualization. Learn the fundamentals of R programming and use them to explore, analyze and visualize data. Develop skills for creating real-world, reproducible data analysis and visualization.   

EDP 381C Survey Research Design. Learn how to design surveys that generate meaningful, actionable data. Follow the survey research process from conceptualization to measurement, administration, data management and analysis, and communicating findings. Explore the strengths and limitations of different approaches (online, mail, telephone and face-to-face surveys), and learn how to choose the right method for different research questions.