University-Based Center

Stories from Evaluators at a University-Based Center on Navigating Their Work with University Clients

Chair(s)

• 

  Tammiee Dickenson, PhD

  Research Professor
  University of South Carolina, United States

Presenter(s)

• 

  Ashlee Lewis, PhD

  Research Associate Professor
  University of South Carolina
  Columbia, South Carolina, United States
• JC

  Jennifer Crooks Monastra, Ph.D.

  Research Associate
  University of South Carolina, United States
• LD

  Leigh D'Amico, Ed.D.

  Research Associate Professor
  University of South Carolina, United States
• 

  Tammiee Dickenson, PhD

  Research Professor
  University of South Carolina, United States

Author(s)

• DC

  Dawn Coleman, Ph.D.

  Research Associate
  University of South Carolina, United States
• HW

  Hall West, Ph.D.

  Research Associate
  University of South Carolina, United States

Location: Room 202

Abstract Information: In this session, evaluators who work at a university-based evaluation and research center will share stories from their experiences in working with university clients. The evaluators provide services on externally funded projects where the Principal Investigators and project leadership team members are university faculty and staff members. The faculty and staff members engage in research or policy work in their area of expertise and, while they often are trained as researchers, they frequently have limited knowledge of evaluation as a profession or field that is distinct from research. In fact, the university-based evaluators’ higher education clients sometimes have epistemological perspectives that differ from theirs and many other professional evaluators. These diverse perspectives and areas of expertise can present both challenges and opportunities for the evaluators. The evaluators will share stories of their experiences from three projects where the Principal Investigator or project leader is a university faculty or staff member. They will discuss challenges encountered and how they navigated the situations to foster positive relationships with their university clients. The projects include a statewide family engagement center serving PK-12 schools and families, a university STEM mentorship program for high school students, and a partnership grant for a teacher residency program in rural school districts. This breadth of projects will illustrate the collaborative nature of the evaluators’ work and how they engage university clients to understand and embrace multiple aspects of the evaluation process. The session has relevance to evaluators from university-based centers who conduct similar work.

Relevance Statement: In this session, we will share stories from our experiences working with university clients as evaluators who work at a university-based evaluation and research center. We provide evaluation services on externally funded projects where the Principal Investigators and project leadership team members are university faculty and staff members, often at the same university where we are employed. The faculty and staff members engage in research or policy work in their area of expertise and, while they often are trained as researchers, they frequently have limited knowledge of evaluation as a profession or field that is distinct from research. In fact, our higher education clients sometimes have epistemological perspectives that differ from ours and many other professional evaluators. These diverse perspectives and areas of expertise can present both challenges and opportunities for us as evaluators. In our evaluation work, we take a utilization-focused approach in which we partner with project leadership on designing data collection to inform project needs. We focus on both process- and outcome-oriented work and thus strive to provide results in a timely manner so that data can be used for continuous improvement. Some university partners are primarily interested in outcomes and have little interest in qualitative data or process-oriented data collected for formative purposes. Other university faculty and staff members embrace the opportunity to receive feedback and are receptive to and act on evaluator recommendations. We will share stories of our experiences as evaluators from three projects where the Principal Investigator or project leader is a university faculty or staff member. We will discuss challenges encountered and how we navigated the situations to foster positive relationships with our university clients. The projects include a statewide family engagement center serving PK-12 schools and families, a university STEM mentorship program for high school students, and a partnership grant for a teacher residency program in rural school districts. This breadth of projects will illustrate the collaborative nature of our work and how we engage our university clients to understand and embrace multiple aspects of the evaluation process. The session has relevance to evaluators from university-based centers who conduct work similar to ours.

Presentations:

• 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM ET

  Collaborating Across Knowledge Paradigms
  

  Presenter: Jennifer Crooks Monastra, Ph.D. – University of South Carolina

  Presenter: Ashlee A. Lewis, PhD – University of South Carolina
• 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM ET

  Navigating Improvement Science within a University-Based Teacher Residency Program
  

  Presenter: Leigh D'Amico, Ed.D. – University of South Carolina

  Presenter: Jennifer Crooks Monastra, Ph.D. – University of South Carolina

  Author: Hall West, Ph.D. – University of South Carolina
• 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM ET

  Using Rubric Methodology to Make Sense of a Complex Project
  

  Presenter: Ashlee A. Lewis, PhD – University of South Carolina

  Presenter: Tammiee Dickenson, PhD – University of South Carolina

  Author: Dawn Coleman, Ph.D. – University of South Carolina