The Evaluators Institute

FAQs About Certificates

Questions about the Institutes' Certificates

Persons with questions about the certificates are encouraged to forward those to MFSmith@EvaluatorsInstitute.com. A few questions and answers are listed below.

How long (i.e., how much time) will one have to commit to complete the requirements for a TEI certificate?

An individual can complete the requirements for one certificate (CEP or CQEM) after 30 days in class or two certificates (CEP and CAEP) after 60 days, or by selecting electives carefully, all three certificates can be completed with 60 days of in-class time.

How many TEI programs must one attend to complete a certificate?

The answer to this question depends upon whether one has participated in previous courses. In 2004, 17 courses were offered over a 6-day period in January in San Francisco and 24 were offered over an 11-day period in July in Washington, DC. So, by the end of July 2004, an individual could have completed 17 days of instruction during this one calendar year that would count toward one or more certificates. Depending upon what courses an individual has already taken with TEI, these 17 days might be enough to enable one to qualify for a certificate and certainly this number of days would go far in meeting a certificate's requirements.

The 2005 schedule of programs of TEI is expanded. For example, the San Francisco program is usually 6 days in length and in 2005 it is 12 days. The DC 2005 program is expected to again run for 11-12 days. So, in 2005, a participant could enroll in 20-24 days of instruction at these two locations. In addition, TEI is exploring the potential of working with local evaluation associations to add at least one additional site per year in some location other than San Francisco and Washington, DC.

Will the courses taken in previous TEI programs count toward the requirements for these certificates?

Yes. Almost all courses taught in previous programs can be applied toward the certificates, which means that many TEI past participants have already satisfied a number of the requirements for one or more certificates.

How can previous participants determine their current status in terms of meeting requirements for one or more of the certificates?

Send a stamped (60 cent) and self-addressed envelope to the TEI office: 116 Front Street, Federal Building, Rm 236, Lewes, DE 19958, and indicate which certificate(s) are of interest. Transcripts will be provided at no cost as long as we are permitted to handle these requests as we have time. For rush orders, send a check for $10 along with a stamped and self-addressed envelope.

Can one substitute college credit for some of the requirements for a TEI certificate?

Yes. Approved substitutions will be permitted for up to 10 days of the requirements for a particular TEI certificate. The college course(s) should be recent, that is, completed within the previous 5 years. See next two questions for course substitution approval process.

What must one do to request college credit substitutes for TEI Certificate requirements?

1. Provide an official university transcript that shows completion of courses one wishes to substitute. Send to:

Dr. M. F. Smith, Director
The Evaluators' Institute
Federal Building, Rm 236
116 Front Street
Lewes, DE 19958

2. For each course one wishes to have credited to a Certificate, please provide the following:

2.a.	Topic area for which a course is requested to be substituted.
2.b.	Course requested to be substituted (title, semester hours completed and grade, year completed, institution at which completed, name of instructor).
2.c.	Description of course desired to substitute. (Description from university catalog or website OR syllabus from completed course, with reference to where description came from.)
2.d.	Rationale for why course taken at university is sufficiently similar to TEI course. (This is a comparison of the similarities and differences between TEI course and university course for which substitution is desired.)

3. Please provide all information requested in 2, above; that is, do not refer a reviewer of your request to some additional source to secure information. It is the requester's responsibility to provide all needed information for a decision to be made on the substitution.

4. An example: Assume one wants to substitute a university course to fulfill a required or elective course for the Certificate in Evaluation Practice (CEP).

4.a.	Topic for which substitution is desired: IA.b. Evaluation Design.
4.b.	Course requested to be substituted: Title: _______________________________________ Semester hours completed: ____, Grade received: _____ Year completed: ____ Institution at which completed/Name of instructor: ___________________/________________________
4.c.	Description of course to be substituted and source: Source of description:____________________________ Description:____________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________
4.d.	Comparison (similarities and differences) of course to be substituted with TEI course that meets requirement of IA.b. Evaluation Design ("The Basics of Program Evaluation, Step by Step"): __________________________________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________

5. Repeat 4.a-d for each course desired to be substituted.

What is the time limit for completion of a certificate?

TEI courses for completion of any one certificate (the CEP and CAEP) should span a maximum of 5 years and substituted university credit should span a maximum of 5 years prior to first TEI course counted toward a specific Certificate. OR, the span of years for TEI courses and university substitutions should be a maximum of 10 years.

What is meant by a day of TEI class time and how does this work in terms of calculating transfer of credit from a university?

For ease in calculation, one semester hour of university credit will be used to offset two days of TEI class time, up to a maximum of 10 days of the requirements for any one certificate.

This formula was determined as follows: TEI students spend 6-7 hours in a class each day, after time has been deducted for breaks and lunch. Academic students usually spend less than an hour (45- to 55-minute sessions) per class per week over 14 weeks for each semester hour of course credit.

	Two days of TEI classes = 12 to 14 hours of class time;
	One semester of academic instruction = approximately 13 hours of class time.