The Center for Evaluation & Assessment (CEA), housed in UC Santa Barbara's Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, meets the high demand for evidence-based decision making by offering cutting-edge evaluation and assessment services and training. The CEA’s central mission is to provide useful and actionable insights that can contribute to the continued development of programs and policies.

The CEA works with organizations to help them develop a deeper understanding of the impact that their programs have on the stakeholders they serve. To accomplish this larger goal the CEA:

  • works to understand the needs of the community
  • develops a clear plan that connects program activities to desired outcomes
  • identifies relevant evaluative questions
  • designs an evaluation that best meets the informational needs of the organization and its stakeholders

The CEA’s approach is rooted in rigorous methodology and informed by stakeholder values to offer an evaluation service that is focused on helping organizations and programs improve and develop.