September Village Voices:  Quality Education Research: What is it? How does it help our schools? Monday, September 11, 2018, 7-8 pm at the NE Library, 330 Seventh St. NE.

Barbara Devaney was Mathematica’s chief operating officer and executive vice president and worked at Mathematica for 40 years before her 2018 retirement. As a nationally recognized expert in maternal and child health, nutrition and risk-reduction programs for youth, she played a leading role in many of Mathematica’s studies of family formation, children’s nutrition and public health programs, co-directed Mathematica’s Building Strong Families study and served as principal investigator for its evaluation of abstinence education programs. Devaney has served on scientific committees convened by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences  and has published widely. 

For Village Voices, she will be talking about a large project called “What Works Clearinghouse” undertaken by Mathematica. Not all education research is equal, and identifying well-designed studies, trustworthy research, and meaningful findings to inform decisions and improve student outcomes can be tricky. Barbara and colleagues reviewed the research on topics from encouraging girls in science programs to preventing dropouts, determined which studies meet rigorous standards, and summarized the findings. The aim is to answer the question “what works in education?” To see the results of the work, look at: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/referenceresources/wwc_info_what_061015.pdf 

Meet and learn from your illustrious Capitol Hill neighbors in informal, free, public discussions about social, economic, and political topics in this latest installment in the Village Voices series. For further information, call Capitol Hill Village, 202-543-1778 or email info@capitolhillvillage.org.