WestEd research and evaluation experts will present at Evaluation 2024, the American Evaluation Association’s Annual Conference, this October 21–October 26, in Portland, Oregon.
The Evaluation 2024 conference brings together evaluation professionals to network, collaborate, and present recent findings and innovative evaluation practices. This year’s theme is Amplifying and Empowering Voices in Evaluation.
To address the conference theme, WestEd’s Science and Engineering team will present on a number of topics including:
- Broadening participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
- Implementing inclusive and culturally responsive evaluation practices
- Amplifying neurodiverse voices in evaluation design and practice
- Giving voice to foreign-born students
- Negotiating data collection plans and data sharing among internal and external stakeholders
View a comprehensive list of WestEd’s presentations below. Evaluators, researchers, instructors, and students of evaluation are invited to participate.
Follow WestEd on LinkedIn and on Facebook to share your insights from the conference!
WestEd Presentations
Wednesday, October 23
Panel Discussion: Broadening STEM Participation Through Inclusive and Equitable Evaluation Practices
Time: 4:15pm – 5:15pm PT
Location: D133-134
Presenters: Rasha Elsayed (WestEd), Andrew Grillo-Hill (WestEd), Joshua Valcarcel (WestEd), Karen Melchior (WestEd), Kimberly Nguyen (WestEd), Holland Banse (Magnolia Consulting, LLC), and Jennifer Gruber (Magnolia Consulting, LLC)
Download the Presentation Slide Deck
WestEd and Magnolia Consulting will be co-presenting on their evaluations of NASA-funded programs that aim to promote science participation among diverse youth, including neurodiverse individuals, those with diverse physical abilities, Indigenous youth, and Multilingual Learners. The session will showcase strategies used in the program evaluations to support partners in improving their internal collaborations and external program implementation to create inclusive Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) experiences. Additionally, they will discuss the necessary mindset and practice shifts required to implement equitable, inclusive, and culturally responsive evaluations across different contexts.
Multipaper Session: Arts, Culture, and Museums
Time: 5:00pm – 5:15pm PT
Paper: Fostering the Voices of All Stakeholders: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Implementation of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in a Community-Based Informal Learning Site Through the Student Experience
Authors: Jennifer D. Sayed (Southern Methodist University) and Cathy Ringstaff (WestEd)
In this project, which views culturally responsive pedagogy as crucial for enhancing student learning, learners explored nature centers, museums, and other community spaces to learn about math connections to everyday objects. Students then created their own “walk stops” based on mathematical questions they posed and answered. Findings indicate that informal learning sites fostered a sense of student “voice”; that the informal learning sites and project activities offered opportunities for students to become creators of knowledge, fostering a sense of pride; and that the process of posing their own questions helped the students create personal connections to their learning.
Thursday, October 24
Panel Discussion: From ideas to implementation: Sharing experiences from projects applying culturally responsive evaluation
Time: 2:30pm – 3:30pm PT
Location: D137-139
Chair: Allison Anderson (Museum of Science, Boston)
Panelists: Ann Atwood (Museum of Science, Boston), Kelly Kealy (Goldstream Group, Inc.), Jackie DeLisi (Education Development Center), Josh Valcarcel (WestEd), and Andrew Grillo-Hill (WestEd)
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In this session, panelists will share lessons learned on best practices for applying culturally responsive evaluation to projects with a focus on neurodiversity. The presentation covers best practices regarding informed consent, recruitment, instrument design, data collection, and reporting in the context of culturally responsive evaluation and programs designed to support neurodiverse learners. Panelists will share their experiences applying best practices around culturally responsive evaluations including the principles that guided the evaluation process, what worked well, what could have gone better, and what factors evaluators should consider in applying cultural responsiveness principles in practice.
Ignite Session 4: Evaluation as a Catalyst: Uplifting Hispanic and Low-Income Students’ Perspectives to Enhance STEM
Time: 5:05pm – 5:10pm PT
Location: E147-148
Presenters: Pai-rou Chen (WestEd), Marisa Castellano (WestEd), and Andrew Grillo-Hill (WestEd)
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This presentation highlights the importance of uplifting student voice in evaluations of education programs. A California university received a 5-year grant to increase retention and graduation rates among Hispanic and low-income STEM students. Activities included undergraduate research opportunities and social/career-related engagement activities. When Year 1 findings revealed that many students did not participate meaningfully in any research, grant leaders took student feedback seriously. By Year 2, students could describe their research projects and easily discuss graduate-level concepts, illustrating the importance of heeding student input to foster academic empowerment. Students credited the engagement activities with their persistence and rejecting imposter syndrome.
Poster Reception: Understanding the Digital Divide: Empowering voices of stakeholders through evaluation
Time: 6:00pm – 7:30pm PT
Presenter: Cathy Ringstaff (WestEd)
Authors: Cathy Ringstaff (WestEd) and Rasha Elsayed (WestEd)
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As technology availability and use has become more pervasive over the last few decades, researchers and policymakers have studied what is commonly referred to as the “Digital Divide,” and have often compared technology access in rural and urban communities. Many assume that the digital divide is a binary distinction: the “haves” vs. the “have-nots.” This view of the digital divide is simplistic and gives the illusion that fixing it will be easy: simply give rural residents a computer and internet access, and the divide will disappear.
This session, “Understanding the ‘Digital Divide’: Empowering voices of stakeholders through evaluation,” will describe findings of a study funded by a not-for-profit organization that was designed to provide rural families in four states with computers, with the goal of increasing computer access in high-poverty communities in four states, thereby helping reduce the digital divide in these communities. The session will center the voices of parents and community members to highlight the difficulties of overcoming the Digital Divide in these rural communities.
Friday, October 25
Roundtable Session: Developing Cultural Competency to Amplify Neurodiverse Voices in Evaluation Design and Practice
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm PT
Location: G131-132
Presenter: Karen Melchior (WestEd)
Authors: Karen Melchior (WestEd), Rasha Elsayed (WestEd), Andrew Grillo-Hill (WestEd), Kimberly Nguyen (WestEd), and Josh Valcarcel (WestEd)
Download the Presentation Slide Deck
In this session, our experts will present their efforts to engage in inclusive evaluation design and reporting practices when working with a NASA-funded project serving neurodiverse high school students. This presentation describes how our evaluation team has employed our learnings and the social model of disability as a stance to guide our evaluation process including during evaluation planning, instrument design and development, conducting data collection, and analysis. The presentation will include a discussion around communication strategies with neurodiverse participants, recruitment for surveys and interviews, and how the evaluation team shaped reports that center on the unique experiences of the project’s neurodiverse populations.
Session: Birds of a Feather Presentation
Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm PT
Location: Exhibit Hall A
Presentation: How Internationalizing Higher Education Gave Voice to Foreign-Born Students
Presenters: Kimberly Nguyen (WestEd) and Lisa Marriner (WestEd)
Read the Presentation Summary
In this session, evaluators tell the story of how one program’s approach to internationalizing higher education gave voice to foreign-born students who have traditionally been marginalized in Western-centric academic environments. Highlighting this transformative approach, our session focuses on how Stanford University’s Global Studies Division has redefined internationalization in higher education through the Education Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum (EPIC) fellowship. After the year-long intervention, the program hoped participants would make pedagogical and curricular changes to support internationalization, have greater confidence in their ability to internationalize curricula, and advocate for the internationalization of education.
Presentation: Navigating Tensions Around Data Collection by Multiple Stakeholders of an NSF Study
Presenters: Dianna Cazarez (WestEd) and Burr Tyler (WestEd)
Download the Presentation Slide Deck
This session will discuss an NSF-funded project bringing together scientists and teachers with NGSS expertise to develop Learning Sequences for middle school teachers and students in an urban district in California. These Learning Sequences teach about biodiversity and environmental justice issues in their communities. Three groups are collecting data as the project progresses: researchers and external and internal evaluators. The session will touch on how the groups navigated the tensions inherent in sharing data collection responsibilities while aiming to minimize burden on participants. We will share straightforward strategies and tools we developed to facilitate collaborative and inclusive data collection planning.