14: Co-Designing Evaluation with Educators: From Compliance to Collaboration

Evaluation in education is often seen as a top-down compliance exercise, disconnected from classroom realities. What if evaluation were instead a collaborative process that empowers educators as co-leaders in generating and using evidence to improve instruction? This session explores how evaluators can co-design research with educators to make evaluation more useful, equitable, and actionable. Drawing on lessons from a research-practice partnership in NYC Public Schools that examines how technology-enhanced, culturally responsive math instruction fosters student engagement and belonging, we will discuss: - What does strong evaluator-educator collaboration look like? - How can teacher and student voices shape evaluation design? - How can evaluation findings be shared in formats that are accessible, timely, and practical for classroom use? Join us for a dynamic conversation on reframing evaluation as a tool for empowerment rather than compliance—so that educators and students can truly benefit from the insights we generate.