November 30, 2022 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
This session will assist Noyce PIs, project personnel, and evaluators to deepen the understanding of evaluation, and to leverage evaluation data and evaluation studies to show impact, document improvement, and build sustainability of their Noyce projects. This 90-min. workshop will 1) provide a quick overview of the evaluation requirements per Noyce track; 2) have interactive discussions around a common scenario applicable across different Noyce projects; and 3) share common obstacles, strategies, best practices, lessons learned, and ideas to address different capacities in evaluation.
Speakers: Meltem Alemdar, Ph.D. & Nina de las Alas
Contributor: Kavita Mittapalli, Ph.D.
Meltem Alemdar, Ph.D. -
Associate Director and Principal Research Scientist, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Meltem Alemdar is Associate Director and Principal Research Scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology’s Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC). Her research focuses on improving K-12 STEM education through research on curriculum development, teacher professional development, and student learning in integrated STEM environments. Dr. Alemdar is currently co-PI for research on various NSF funded projects. In addition, she has been external evaluator for various NSF Projects over the past nine years. Her expertise includes program evaluation, social network analysis and quantitative methods such as Hierarchical Linear Modeling, and Structure Equation Modeling. As part of an NSF funded project, she directs a longitudinal study that focuses on measuring engineering curriculum impact on student learning and 21st Century skills. She also has directed a large multi-year multi-institutional social network analysis study to measure changing collaboration patterns among program investigators as a part of a NIH funded grant. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Policy, with a concentration in Research, Measurement, and Statistics, from Georgia State University.
Nina de las Alas -
Senior Research Associate, MN Associates, Inc.
Nina de las Alas is a senior research associate. She brings over 20 years of experience in conducting research and evaluation in comprehensive school reform, leadership matters at organizations, and teacher quality and improvement issues. Previously, she was employed at the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO, DC). Nina has extensive experience in both quantitative and qualitative research methods on federal and state grant programs. Her main areas of interest include the collective impact among human, social, and resource capital, and community revitalization.
Kavita Mittapalli, Ph.D. -
Chief Executive Officer, MN Associates, Inc.
MN Associates, Inc is a small, woman-owned education research and evaluation firm in Northern Virginia. MNA is headed by Kavita Mittapalli, Ph.D., who brings over 18 years of experience in conducting R & E work for various programs and initiatives across the country. She worked at various consulting firms before founding MNA in 2004. Kavita started her career in Agricultural Sciences in India before becoming an Applied Sociologist and a mixed methodologist with an interest in research design in K-20. She brings her multi-disciplinary skills and knowledge to all the work she does at MNA. She is supported by five team members who bring their very diverse backgrounds, academic training, and professional experiences to MNA. To date, MNA has evaluated/ currently engaged in 61 NSF grants in 20 programs (e.g., ATE, AISL, CAREER, Conference, CREST, ECR-CORE, ERC, HBCU-UP, HSI, IUSE, INCLUDES/DDLP, INCLUDES ALLIANCE, ITEST, MSP/STEM C, Noyce, PREM, and S-STEM) in addition to evaluating several medium to large grants funded by other agencies (e.g., USDE, DOL, NASA, DODEA, and DOT). Kavita can be reached at Kavita@mnassociatesinc.com. Connect with her on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/kavitamittapalli) and on Twitter @KavitaMNA.
