The Importance of Education Policy Research

By Dr. Marquita Hockaday

Consider that omnipresent, yet pertinent quote from historians: “It’s important to study history so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past?” The saying is close to that (Caveat: I did major in history as an undergraduate AND I taught history in grades 6-12 for over eight years, so I really should know this line well…) Whether those are the exact words or not, the sentiment behind the quote is what matters, and that sentiment remains when it comes to studying and understanding education policy research.

First, what is education policy? According to Ballotpedia (2021), education policies are the plans and principles put in place to educate students. Since education has existed in our nation, the goals of education policies have included citizenship, literacy, preparation for college and the workforce, preparation for the global market, diversity, helping students to become critical thinkers, and creating common standards for students across the nation. When reviewing education policy, it is important that some questions are considered--such as what are we teaching and how is that instruction being evaluated? What standards are we using to measure academic success?

Shaffer Evaluation Group (SEG) provides an evaluation service where we assist organizations with answering the question of how instruction (or other outputs, such as assessments and teacher training programs) is being evaluated. Additionally, SEG assists organizations with answering the question of what standards of measurement might be used to measure success. For instance, an organization wants to determine how well they are doing with implementing a new education policy initiative related to COVID-19. The school or district may be working on integrating engaging virtual lessons and reach out to SEG regarding a non-experimental study to gauge the fidelity of their existing programs. SEG’s data collection would include interviews, focus groups, and possible quantitative data (e.g., surveys).

Educators should take the time to research, review, and understand existing policy and its impact on the current state of educational practice. Additionally, it’s important to evaluate the fidelity to which these policies are put into practice. More information about how SEG can assist with program evaluation can be found here.

Standing with the AAPI Community: Supporting Communities of Color Against Hate

By Dr. Marquita Hockaday

For several months, numerous instances of racism, discrimination, and overall violence against the Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community has continued in America. These hate crimes include name-calling, shunning (such as refusal of service), workplace discrimination, and random assaults. Hate crimes against the AAPI community increased early in 2020 at the first signs of the coronavirus pandemic in America. Some politicians and activists have stated that hate crimes were exacerbated by former president Donald J. Trump and his strong language toward Chinese individuals and their role in spreading COVID-19.

AAPI individuals who have reported being victims of hate crimes have stated that they were spat on, coughed on, told to go back to their country, and personally blamed for spreading the pandemic. These individual violent crimes against the AAPI community came to head on March 16th, 2021 in Atlanta, GA. A gunman shot and killed eight victims at three different massage parlors, six of those victims were of AAPI descent. While some media reports have claimed this was hate crime and others have stated “it is too soon to tell” whether this is a hate crime or not (based on the shooter having a “fetish for AAPI women”), the sexualization of the six AAPI victims at the massage parlor is a form of racism. This is a demonstration of how society needs to educate themselves on implicit and explicit biases.

Unfortunately, this past year has seen a rise in xenophobic expressions (such as “China virus” for COVID-19), and violence towards the AAPI community, so much so that President Joe Biden signed an executive order right after taking office in January denouncing anti-Asian discrimination.

Shaffer Evaluation Group (SEG) follows the American Evaluation Association’s guiding principles, which addresses competence, integrity, respect for people, common good, and equity. SEG intends to uphold these principles, including honoring dignity, well-being, and self-worth of individuals, as well as acknowledging the influence of culture within and across groups. It is our goal as a company to hold ourselves and others accountable by revealing systems and structures of bias (both implicit and explicit) to stop xenophobia and racism and stand with the AAPI community. We are working toward a future where all people of color can feel safe in public spaces and are not prejudged based on their outward appearance.

Decoding the Future in The Aleut Community of St. Paul

By Stacy Hayden

Shaffer Evaluation Group is proud to be working on another grant with The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island Tribal Government (ACSPI) in Alaska entitled, Decoding the Future.

Pribilof School District serves students living on the two inhabited Pribilof Islands: St. Paul and St. George. After contact with colonizers, the Unangan (Aleut People) were forced to stop speaking their traditional language. Due to this, children did not speak the language at home, and it began to disappear as a living language. Compounding this issue was the loss of speaking elders; by 2017 there were only 13 elderly fluent speakers of the language on St. Paul Island. ASCPI launched the Unangam Tunuu (UT) Program to combat this issue in 2006. Since inception, the program has successfully produced 72 fluent listeners of UT and three individuals who have some speaking proficiency.

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Indian Education funds are being used to support the expansion of their existing Native American Language Program, the UT Program. Further, the project will support the integration of the UT program with an existing computer coding program. Integrating these programs will allow for “students to capitalize on their own excitement around learning and using 21st century tools in a setting to define a new world in a traditional manner” (Grant application, 2020).

Shaffer Evaluation Group serves as the external evaluator for this grant, along with The Aleut Community of St. Paul Tribal Island’s college and career readiness grant, funded in 2018. If you would like more information about our services, including grant evaluation, contact us.