Jennifer L. Hindman joins Shaffer Evaluation Group

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Welcome to Dr. Hindman, who has been contracted as a senior research associate for Shaffer Evaluation Group. Previously, Dr. Hindman served as the School University Research Network (SURN)’s Assistant Director at The College of William & Mary; SURN is a partnership of over 28 Virginia school divisions that is funded largely through grant awards. Her career in education began as a substitute teacher at the age of 18; she has been a middle school teacher, a science specialist, designer of educator performance appraisal systems, outreach specialist for Project HOPE, Virginia’s McKinney-Vento program, and adjunct faculty member. Throughout her career, Dr. Hindman's focus has been on engaging and impactful learning experiences whether she is working with students or fellow educators. She has presented widely on student engagement, effective hiring practices, and lessons learned from grants she has co-authored, and she is the author of seven books and numerous articles. Dr. Hindman holds a Virginia Postgraduate Professional License with endorsements in Elementary Grades K-8, Gifted Education, and Administration and Supervision PreK-12. Dr. Hindman earned a Ph.D. in Educational Policy, Planning and Leadership (K-12) at the College of William & Mary. The University of Virginia awarded her Master of Teaching and B.A. degrees.

Evaluation at the Edge of the Bering Sea

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We began work this month with The Aleut Community of St. Paul Island​. This tribal government has a strong vision to have empowered, healthy families contributing to a thriving culture and sustainable community on this island that is located 750 miles west of Anchorage in the Bering Sea.

Declining trends in employment and education, coupled with a desire for more educational and vocational training opportunities and a desire for increased STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) education opportunities, has led to new educational initiatives on St. Paul. The Bering Sea Campus, to be housed in the St. Paul School, will offer degree and certification pathways for students on St. Paul Island, bringing post-secondary education student support and direct onsite instruction into the community. The Bering Sea Campus will provide a facility in which the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Bristol Bay Campus can run its satellite Learning Center. The Bering Sea Campus also will provide a space in which scientists can perform research, such as laboratory analysis and data collection.

Shaffer Evaluation Group is working with the tribal government to build its evaluation capacity, including developing data collection, data management, and validation methodologies for the Bering Sea Campus programs.

#Alaska #Aleutian #Evaluation

Cybersecurity Pathways for Military-Connected Students

With cybersecurity becoming one of the world’s fastest growing STEM fields, Newport News Public Schools has been awarded a grant by DODEA to create a pathway for military-connected students into cybersecurity. Shaffer Evaluation Group will provide evaluation support across the term of the grant period.

Focusing on pre-K through 8th grade the school district will integrate computational thinking, problem solving, and digital literacy into curriculum, provide additional in-class technology and robots, and extracurricular opportunities for more in-depth cybersecurity curriculum. This project includes a preschool, 4 elementary schools, and 2 middle schools. Professional learning will increase teachers’ confidence integrating STEM curriculum and will reinforce math instruction and curriculum to promote computational thinking and problem solving skills required in cyber literacy. A successful program will show student growth in the Computation and Estimation strands of the Virginia Math Standards of Learning, and growth in the Expressions and Operations strands of the Virginia Algebra I Standards of Learning assessment.