For 10 years, the South by Southwest (SXSW) EDU conference has provided a venue to share cutting-edge ideas and tools with a community of creative and passionate changemakers who want to advance teaching and learning. Mathematica has a proud history of working with the U.S. Department of Education, state and local education agencies, and foundations to gather evidence on what works. In March, we are excited to be leading three SXSW EDU sessions on innovative strategies in K–12 education and youth programming. Specifically, Mathematica staff will speak at the following sessions:
- Mikia Manley and Lauren Amos will lead a workshop about applying lessons from the learning sciences to design online tools for practitioners in K–12 education that can help nontechnical audiences collect and use evaluation data to inform their decision making.
- Naihobe Gonzalez will join a discussion about Oakland Unite, a collaborative network that helps youth and young adults who have been expelled, incarcerated, or are at high risk of becoming involved in violence. Gonzalez will lead the audience through a case study of Oakland Unite along with Peter Kim, program manager of Oakland Unite at the city of Oakland, and Johanna Lacoe, the research director at the California Policy Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. This session will focus on Oakland Unite’s success in preventing school dropout and key takeaways for supporting high-risk youth in and out of school. Read more about Mathematica’s ongoing evaluation of Oakland Unite here.
- Steven Malick will lead a workshop on how educators can apply culturally responsive practices to advance equity in their schools and districts. Can’t make it to Austin? Last fall, the Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic, Mathematica, and experts on educational equity hosted a free four-part webinar series on culturally responsive practices as a strategy for improving education outcomes.
Mathematica is a pioneer in working with school leaders at the state and local level to use the best available information in making everyday decisions. This year, Mathematica debuted the Evidence to Insights (e2i) Coach, which is a free, online platform that helps educators generate evidence about what’s working in their unique context. During the SXSW EDU Expo, March 9–11, Mathematica will demo the e2i Coach at Booth 322.
For live updates from Mathematica at SXSW EDU, follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. To keep up with Mathematica’s latest work in education, subscribe for email updates and check the “Education” box under “Areas of interest.”
