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Providing strategic management consulting and tactical delivery, we are nationally recognized Education, Training and Credentialing assessment program development and evaluation experts.

Trusted by profession regulators, professional associations, institutes of higher learning, government and other education-focused organizations to lead, manage and implement high-stakes projects affecting thousands of professionals, professional candidates and students, providing exceptional strategic management and psychometric services to a growing roster of new and repeat clients.

                      Research & Evaluation Consulting, Inc. (RAECON) has been Delivering the Analytic Edge® since 2008.

RAECON’s projects are led by Dr. A. Sidiq (Sid) Ali, a psychometrician and Credentialed Evaluator.

SERVICES
SUCCESSES

SERVICES AT A GLANCE

Program Development

We help professional organizations develop credentialing (licensure and certification) programs, often focusing on assessment development, validation and implementation. If your organization trains, educates or supports professional development for your employees, membership or registrants, we can help you develop new programs or improve existing ones. When professional livelihoods and business performance is at stake, you need top quality credentialing program development. We can deliver.

Training and Workshops

We use our expertise and experience as professional educators to customize training and workshops for employee groups as well as entire organizations. Delivering top-quality learning opportunities in various areas, let us help you better understand the important concepts in: Program Evaluation, Credentialing Program Development, Applied Education Research, Psychometrics and Data Visualization.

Program Evaluation

We provide external, objective, professional evaluation services for your organization’s education, training or credentialing programs. What are your program’s intended outcomes? How do you know if your program is achieving its designed outcomes? What types of data should you be collecting to inform you on the status of your program’s operation? How do you best present your program’s successes to your stakeholders? Do you need nationally recognized expertise in defining, measuring and communicating success for your programs? We deliver that expertise.

Psychometrics

We evaluate, develop and validate assessment programs, tests and test items; conduct item-writing workshops; and facilitate cut-score studies. We use classical test theory to evaluate the performance of your tests and their individual items. We also provide training in organizations that have in-house staff assigned to working with assessments of employees’ or members’ professional learning.  Additionally, we can assist your staff in understanding basic to advanced topics in assessment, providing training on various concepts from test development to interpretation of psychometric reports. Finally, our expertise can help your organization find and evaluate large-scale exam vendors, test security providers, and candidate management systems.

Applied Education Research

We conduct applied research in the education domain. Do you need to add to your organization’s understanding of a specific field of interest or of particular initiative to implement a project or program? Do you collect data on a regular basis to inform your strategic and tactical business decisions? Do you have mountains of data you need to make sense of in order to take action? We can provide your organization with the information needed to make sound decisions.

90

COMPLETED PROJECTS

44

EVALUATION-FOCUSED PROJECTS

77

DISCRETE CLIENT ENGAGEMENTS

36

INVITED/REFEREED PRESENTATIONS AND WORKSHOPS

DR. SIDIQ (SID) ALI, CE
Managing Director
An expert in program evaluation, and performance assessment system development, management and evaluation.

Dr. A. Sidiq (Sid) Ali, CE

Founder and Managing Director

RAECON‘s Founder and Managing Director, A. Sidiq (Sid) Ali is an expert and Canadian thought leader in program development and evaluation in the education/training and credentialing space. Many of the projects he has led involve his unique skill set and experience as a Credentialed Evaluator with graduate level education in Psychometrics.

Spanning more than two decades in research and evaluation, he has worked on projects: in the public sector on provincial and district-size programs; with national and provincial professional associations and regulators of healthcare, financial services, as well as the legal and engineering professions; with education-focused not-for-profits; for leading edge technology companies, international professional associations; and for some of Canada’s largest financial institutions. Many of the projects have been transformative, involving Dr. Ali’s strategic management and tactical delivery.

Since founding Research & Evaluation Consulting (RAECON) in 2008, he has built the consulting firm’s reputation as a key strategic and tactical resource in Canada’s professional credentialing domain, delivering the highest levels of client satisfaction on a variety of complex and high-profile projects.  For example, his work with nursing regulators in Ontario and British Columbia on the development and validation of measurement systems has been implemented in other provinces as well, and he has a long-standing relationship with regulated professions in Canadian financial services, playing lead psychometric roles in the development of the CPA Canada assessment program and the transformation of the Competency-based National Insolvency Exam for CAIRP. Additionally, he has led international high-stakes assessment program development projects for exams administered globally.

Sid ensures high-quality, expert strategic and tactical consulting as well as client success management, resulting in more than 40% of RAECON’s business from repeat clients. 

Dr. Ali is also a passionate and award-winning data visualization and intentional reporting advocate who regularly facilitates workshops on these knowledge transfer activities.

MORE ABOUT SID

Professional Highlights

  • Ph.D. and M.Ed. in Educational Measurement and Evaluation from the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  • Published in the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, the Alberta Journal of Education Research, Gifted Education International, and the Canadian Government Executive Magazine
  • National Science Foundation scholarship recipient for the Evaluators’ Institute
  • Canadian Evaluation Society National Board of Directors (2015-2018); Credentialed Evaluator since 2012, Credentialing Board member (2023- )
  • CPA Canada Assessment Development Task Force member, retained psychometric consultant
  • Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals’ (CAIRP) Chartered Insolvency and Restructuring Professional (CIRP) Qualification Program (CQP) Task Force member, retained psychometric consultant
  • Lead Evaluator Law Society of Ontario Pathways to the Profession Pilot Project and Articling Experience Study
  • Psychometric Consultant for RBC Personal Credit Mastery Program
  • Lead Measurement & Evaluation Scientist for College of Nurses of Ontario’s (CNO) Program Approval Framework – Now implemented in 2 other provinces
  • Quality Assurance Program Review and new QA Program Development Lead Psychometric Consultant for the College of Optometrists of Ontario
  • Psychometric and Test Development Lead for the international Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists’ CSS and Export Controls Exams
  • Lead Psychometric Consultant for the Development of the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives’ (BCCNM) new Education Program Review process
  • Lead Strategic Consultant (Measurement) on the Evolution of Lawyer Licensing Examinations for a Provincial Regulator
  • Psychometric Consultant for the Engineers Canada Futures of Engineering Accreditation project
  • Expert witness in litigations involving examinations in regulated professions
  • Psychometric and Management Consultant for the Real Estate Council of Ontario Centralized Examinations Strategy
  • Recipient of the Award of Excellence the Best Research category by the Canadian Public Relations Society, as well as the Gold Quill and Award of Merit by the International Association of Business Communicators for Communication: Research

TESTIMONIALS

Sid provides significant insight into the work the HGGE task group is performing. His experience in the performance of testing and assessments is a guiding beacon allowing the task group to arrive with robust recommendations. I look forward to working with Sid on other projects in the future.
Ajay Pangarkar
CPA, CA, CTDP – Author and Thought Leader, The Trainer’s Balanced Scorecard (book)

Sid provides significant insight into the work the HGGE task group is performing. His experience in the performance of testing and assessments is a guiding beacon allowing the task group to arrive with robust recommendations. I look forward to working with Sid on other projects in the future.
Dr. Ali from Research and Evaluation Consulting helped us not only consolidate our 18 year data base into a coherent system but allowed us to reflect on our use of data as well as how our data informs our ongoing strategy and research. We are immensely grateful for Sid’s work with us. His client responsiveness and customization of expertise to meet our needs is a terrific example of the value of Research and Evaluation Consulting.
Dr. David Cameron
Research Director, People for Education

Dr. Ali from Research and Evaluation Consulting helped us not only consolidate our 18 year data base into a coherent system but allowed us to reflect on our use of data as well as how our data informs our ongoing strategy and research. We are immensely grateful for Sid’s work with us. His client responsiveness and customization of expertise to meet our needs is a terrific example of the value of Research and Evaluation Consulting.
Sid conducted an external evaluation for CONNECT Strategic Alliances, one of my clients on an immigration-related project. His collaborative approach, thoroughness and honest feedback was much appreciated. Of particular note for us – the literature review was fantastic. With a strong understanding of evaluation and excellent listening skills, Sid provided us with superior service. I’ve worked with many evaluators in the academia/ non-profit field in the Toronto area and highly recommend Sid’s work.
Nikhat Rasheed
Principal, Principal, Xettabyte Consulting Group Inc., Project Manager of CONNECT Strategic Alliance’s ICHR Project

Sid conducted an external evaluation for CONNECT Strategic Alliances, one of my clients on an immigration-related project. His collaborative approach, thoroughness and honest feedback was much appreciated. Of particular note for us – the literature review was fantastic. With a strong understanding of evaluation and excellent listening skills, Sid provided us with superior service. I’ve worked with many evaluators in the academia/ non-profit field in the Toronto area and highly recommend Sid’s work.

FROM THE BLOG

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EQUITY AND EQUALITY, FAIRNESS AND BIAS: MAKING CONNECTIONS IN CREDENTIALING

The topics of Equality and Equity relate to concepts of Fairness and Bias in credential program development and evaluation in ways that are not always clear, especially considering for the most part the former two are commonly considered societal issues, and the latter are more technical concepts that live in[…..]

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PUTTING EVALUATION USERS FIRST TO BUILD EVALUATION CAPACITY

Recently I had the opportunity to write a piece for the Canadian Government Executive Magazine, an electronic and print publication that reaches some 70,000 readers per month. Many of these readers are key players in evaluation in Canada, from program managers to evaluation sponsors and consumers. Since we work predominantly[…..]

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CONTACT US

What can we help you with?

info@rae-consult.com

1-905-916-0743

@RaECon08