Centering Community Voice Through Evaluation Codesign

Abstract Information: As evaluators, we are uniquely positioned to gather and facilitate information that can significantly impact communities. We therefore carry the responsibility to center the voices of those most impacted by our work. Ensuring that their voices and experiences are incorporated into the evaluation process can address power inequities that often exist between evaluators and study participants. Incorporating participant voices creates space for an evaluation to be more culturally competent through accuracy and authenticity and is more efficient by building off existing community expertise. One approach to centering community member voice is Evaluation Co-design, often also referred to as Participatory Evaluation (PE) or Participatory Action Research (PAR), a process which centers community members at each step of the evaluation process. During this session, participants will explore two case studies as examples of co-design work in different contexts. The facilitators will share the case studies, focusing on the shared values that drove the work, and participants will have the opportunity to reflect on co-design opportunities within their own contexts. The first case study explores a collaboration with State-Tribal Education Compact (STEC) schools in Washington state, a component of the ESSER Attendance and Reengagement project. The evaluation team codesigned an evaluation process alongside partners at STEC schools that tells the story of each school’s implementation in a way that is driven by their values and goals and allows the evaluation team to honor Tribal data sovereignty, an inherent right of Tribal Nations to govern the collection, ownership and application of their data. The second case study examines the evaluation team’s experiences co-designing an evaluation plan alongside partners at Pathwaves, a fellowship focused on increasing the representation of people of color in early childhood policy spaces. The evaluation team partnered with staff, fellows and placement sites to establish shared understanding of evaluation work, identify outcomes focusing on learning and improvement, and develop mixed methods to capture the experiences and perspectives of fellows, placement sites and staff.