• microplan

    A microloan program designed to assist women, low income, veteran, and minority entrepreneurs, and other small businesses will be evaluated for its impact in growth outcomes

    The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Microloan Program makes direct loans to qualified nonprofit, quasi-governmental and tribal mediators that, in turn, lend working capital for job creation, equipment, and material purchases. This program is essential for small businesses who do not qualify for traditional business loans and who have historically been underrepresented in the business community across a number of industries. […]

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  • SBA Logo

    Optimal evaluated four Small Business Administration programs using logic models to determine outcomes

    A logic model provides a visual likeness of the key program pathways linking program components to short-term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes. The purpose of a logic model is to define a program’s theory of change by showing how the program’s underlying assumptions, strategies, resources, activities, and contextual factors are expected to lead to the desired outcomes. Optimal prepared logic models […]

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  • Optimal develops AI-tool to assist government agencies identify qualified under-represented firms

    Government agencies often use incomplete and non-systematic approaches to identify qualified contractors and capable, socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses for government requests. While information about firms is available, it is stored across disparate systems that are not linked together. In order for staff to more efficiently identify small disadvantaged businesses, Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal), developed a series of […]

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  • Optimal assessed the impact of small business development program

    The Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a) Business Development Program grants participants access to set-aside or sole source contracts, a business opportunity specialist, the right to enter a mentor-protégé program, and other benefits. The goal of the Evaluation of 8(a) Certified Firms is to better understand the market for goods and services demanded by federal agencies and those supplied by 8(a) businesses. The […]

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  • Optimal assessed the impact of SBA’s Emerging Leaders Training and Mentoring Initiative

    This study helped SBA in improving the program enactment of Emerging Leaders (e200) Training and Mentoring Initiative by identifying strategies to improve program participation and stakeholder engagement. It also identified the factors affecting the business revenue and business survival rates of the businesses poised for growth in historically challenged communities. Optimal assisted in developing the overall evaluation frameworks for SBA’s […]

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  • SBA Logo

    Optimal assessed the performance of the SBA small business regional clusters

    The SBA’s Regional Innovation Cluster (RIC) Initiative, launched in September 2010, promotes and supports U.S. regional clusters—geographically concentrated groups of connected businesses, suppliers, service providers, and similar institutions in an industry or field. Clusters act as a networking hub to convene resources for small businesses. This then helps small businesses in navigating funding, procurement, and supply-chain opportunities in their specific […]

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  • round table

    Optimal analyzed small business program designed to provide business development assistance

    Established in 2016, the All Small Mentor-Protégé Program (ASMPP) extends the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) approved mentor-protégé relationships to every small business. The program’s goal is to develop strong protégé firms through mentor-provided business development assistance. Optimal assessed why firms leave the ASMPP either during the application process before they are approved for the program or during the program participation […]

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  • 29439 DEV Color

    Optimal Solutions Group Appraised at CMMI Level 3 – Development

    Optimal Solutions Group, LLC today announced that it has been appraised at level 3 for Development (DEV) of the CMMI Institute’s Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)®. The appraisal was performed by Abridge Technology. CMMI is a capability improvement framework that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes that ultimately improve their performance.

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  • Using Mobile Applications in Opioid Treatment: Opportunities and Challenges

    Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) awarded Optimal a contract to assess the implementation and effectiveness of mobile application technology to provide recovery support services to patients undergoing treatment for opioid dependence in an Opioid Treatment Program (OTP).

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Recent Press Releases
Whitepaper: Data Preparation and Governance- Keys to Efficiently Reach Accessibility Goals

February 18, 2026

Accessibility programs move faster when teams work from a clean, trusted inventory of digital properties. This whitepaper lays out a practical approach to data preparation and governance so your scanning results are accurate, actionable, and easy to report. The focus is on building a repeatable crawl strategy, applying layered rules before scanning, and producing structured datasets that support prioritization, remediation […]


Whitepaper: Completion, Earnings, and Debt as Strategic Imperatives for Community Colleges

February 2, 2026

Authors: Mark Turner, PhD, President & CEO – Optimal Solutions Group,Co-Founder –  Revelo Software Mark Partridge, PhD Community colleges are facing a rapidly changing accountability environment in which student completion, post-completion earnings, and educational debt are increasingly used to assess institutional performance and risk. Federal transparency and accountability frameworks now elevate these outcomes from reporting metrics to strategic imperatives, particularly […]


Whitepaper: Attribution Challenges in Economic Impact Studies of Festivals and Events

January 23, 2026

Author: Mark Turner, PhD | President, Optimal Solutions Group | Co-Founder, Revelo Software Economic impact studies of festivals and events are often expected to answer a deceptively simple question: What changed because of the event? In practice, many studies report large economic figures based on gross spending and multipliers, without clearly separating activity that truly occurred because of the event from activity […]


Modernizing Peer Reviewer Management for Federal Grant Programs

January 7, 2026

This whitepaper explores the challenges faced by federal agencies in managing peer reviewers across competitive grant programs. Agencies like the Department of Justice, Health and Human Services, and Education rely on qualified reviewers to evaluate applications, yet many still use fragmented, siloed processes. These methods lead to operational inefficiencies, including delayed recruitment, reviewer fatigue, and lack of capacity forecasting. The […]




Archived Press Releases
Optimal Solutions Group to Create Platform to Review Sites for Accessibility Compliance

October 11, 2018

Like buildings and homes, websites may have barriers to accessibility that are not obvious until you know what to look for. Site users who are blind need text descriptions of images that can be read by a screen reader device, while users who cannot easily grip objects will need forms with fields that are navigable without clicking a mouse.


Understanding the effects of 7(j) online training for 8(a) firms

October 2, 2018

The Small Business Administration’s Office of Performance Management has contracted with Optimal Solutions Group to assess the effectiveness of online training on topics such as marketing, contract management, and federal contracting rules and regulations for participants in the 8(a) Business Development Program.


Understanding the role of HUBZone businesses in fulfilling federal government contracts.

October 2, 2018

The Small Business Administration’s Office of Performance Management has contracted with Optimal Solutions Group to provide analyses to determine whether HUBZone-certified firms can fulfill the needs of the available federal government contracts.


Demographics of the Entrepreneur Workshop

September 20, 2018

Dr. Jennifer Auer of Optimal Solutions presented a paper, “Business Assistance and Women Entrepreneurs” at the Demographics of the Entrepreneur Workshop on Sept. 20, 2018.


2018 National Center for Education Statistics STATS-DC Conference

July 27, 2018

At this year’s NCES DC Stats Conference, “Visualizing the Future of Education Through Data,” Optimal Solutions shared its work on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and with state assessment data via a presentation and demonstration booth.


Optimal Founder and CEO appointed to University of Maryland Economics Leadership Council

July 1, 2018

Dr. Mark Turner, founder and CEO of Optimal Solutions Group, LLC, has been appointed to the University of Maryland Economics Leadership Council (ELC).


Optimal awarded GSA IT Schedule 70

June 29, 2018

On June 29, Optimal was awarded the U.S. General Services Administration’s Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) 070 contract, 47QTCA18D00FC. The contract expires in 2023, with the potential of three (5) year options to follow.


Optimal Runner-up in Ohio Opioid Technology Challenge

January 30, 2018

The State of Ohio moved forward with an $8 million dollar technology challenge to help in addressing our nation’s opioid abuse epidemic. Ohio currently spends $1 billion annually in this battle. To help advance innovation in this area, the State launched a three-phase challenge to find solutions in “opioid abuse prevention, treatment and overdose avoidance and response.”


Optimal Solutions Group Supports SBA’s Office of Performance Management and Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) in Program Evaluation Efforts

September 27, 2017

Optimal is pleased to announce that it has received a contract from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Performance Management and Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) to support their program evaluation efforts.


Optimal Solutions Group Appraised at CMMI Level 3 – Services

September 20, 2017

Optimal Solutions Group, LLC today announced that it has been appraised at level 3 for Services (SVC) of the CMMI Institute’s Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)®. The appraisal was performed by Abridge Technology. CMMI is a capability improvement framework that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes that ultimately improve their performance. An appraisal at maturity level 3 […]


CMS Approves Optimal’s Authority to Operate

August 17, 2017

Optimal is pleased to announce that it has received its second Authority to Operate (ATO) from the Acting CIO and Director of the Office of Information Technology (OIT) at CMS for the Learning System Data Management (LSDM) Data Management, Analysis and Reporting System (DMARS) system.


2017 NCES DC Stats Conference: Using Tableau for Displaying Percentile and Regional Data Maps from NAEP Assessments

August 2, 2017

Dr. Brian Cramer and Rahul Rathi, along with Ebony Walton of NCES, presented on using Tableau for displaying percentile and regional data maps from NAEP assessments at the 2017 NCES DC-Stats in Washington, DC on August 2.


UMD’s human-computer interaction lab launched 34th annual symposium

May 25, 2017

The Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) hosted its 34th Annual Symposium on May 25, 2017, at the University of Maryland, College Park. The HCIL symposium was founded in 1983 with a mission to transform the experience people have with new technologies. Optimal Solutions Group, LLC (Optimal) has been a long-term sponsor for this gathering of innovative thinkers.


International Education Progress Reporting Website Launched

March 9, 2017

Optimal is pleased to announce the launch of the public version of USAID 2011-2015 Education Strategy Progress Report website. The website serves as a public access point for data and documentation used by the USAID Office of Education to measure progress towards the targets of the 2011-2015 USAID Education Strategy. The public version of the website details results and accomplishments […]


Land Tenure and Green Growth

March 7, 2017

Green growth is the process of fostering economic growth and development while still maintaining our natural resources. Green growth entails investment and innovation, by way of technology, giving rise to new economic opportunities. The environment must be sustained in the process of green growth. Rodney Schmidt, Ph.D. discussed the history and concept of green growth while examining green growth policy […]


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