A team of faculty and administrators from Florida A&M visit UC Santa Barbara to develop the partnership 'Connecting Networks, Expanding Opportunities'

A team of faculty and administrators from the College of Education at Florida A&M University (FAMU) in Tallahassee, Florida will visit UC Santa Barbara on March 15 and 16. Hosted by the UC Educational Evaluation Center (UCEC), in partnership with the Department of Black Studies and Center for Black Studies Research at UC Santa Barbara, this visit is part of the UCSB–FAMU Partnership “Connecting Networks, Expanding Opportunities” funded by the UC Office of the President’s UC–HBCU Initiative. This program will build an academic network between UCSB and FAMU.

During the visit the team will meet with UCSB faculty, administrators, and students to consider opportunities for collaboration between the two institutions and continue to lay the foundation for a Summer Research and Graduate Admission Pathways Program: the UCSB–FAMU Educational Evaluation Research Scholars Program.

The visiting FAMU team is comprised of Dr. Patricia Green-Powell, Dr. Charles Ervin, Dr. Endya Stewart, and Dr. Mark Howse. Dr. Patricia Green-Powell is currently the Associate Dean of Student Services and Associate Professor for the College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership. Dr. Charles Ervin is Associate Professor, and former Chair (2006-2009), of the Department of Secondary Education and Foundations in the College of Education. Dr. Endya Stewart is an Associate Professor of Secondary Education and Foundations and a Research Associate for the Data Use Research Institute, Teachers for a New Era. Dr. Mark Howse is the Associate Dean of Assessment and Accountability for the College of Education.

“Connecting Networks: UCSB and FAMU” supports academic and co-curricular activities designed to train students in educational evaluation, prepare them for doctoral work, and encourage them to consider a UC graduate program by exposing them to the many opportunities and networks the UC has to offer. This program was one of only eleven proposals funded by the UC Office of the President’s University of California–Historically Black Colleges and Universities Initiative (UC–HBCU) in 2011. Dr. John T. Yun and Dr. Patricia Marin, Director and Associate Director of the UC Educational Evaluation Center, serve as the co-Principal Investigators for this program.

The University of California Educational Evaluation Center utilizes the system-wide expertise of nationally-recognized scholars to address educational problems through the rigorous evaluation of potential educational solutions. Through these evaluations, the UCEC contributes to the knowledge base of effective policies and practices (PK–20 and beyond) with the goal of improving data use and decision-making. The combined experience of the UCEC Site Directors offers content and methodological expertise to successfully conduct national, state, and local educational evaluations, as well as provide training to those seeking to develop evaluation expertise.