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August 20, 2019

The Year of Conferences

As I hang another conference name tag to accompany its buddies on a chair, here are a few reflections, learning, and takeaways from the education conferences I have either attended or presented so far.

1. They are all informational, although, some of them are expensive.

2. I do like to attend sessions that may inform my work.

3. I plan my between-session breaks—one simply cannot attend all the sessions that seem great.

4. I like to interact with as many people as I can including program officers, PIs, and evaluators.

5. If given an opportunity, I share my work—findings as well as challenges. I am often pleasantly surprised to hear that data-related issues in conducting research and program evaluation persist across the board. And I feel that I am not alone.

6. Conferences are good places to network and provide opportunities to collaborate on grants/projects and publish.

7. I often carry many business cards.

8. And I find some time to enjoy the city/local sights and food after the sessions are over and before I head back home.

To date, I have been to ISTE, NSF’s ITEST, S-STEM workshop, Noyce Scholarship summit; AAAS/NSF joint convening on teacher retention; USDE’s Teacher Quality Partnership summit, 21stCCLC Delaware’s state-level, regional, and the National convening, and the Eastern Evaluation Research Society conference.

A few more to go!

Filed Under: News and Updates

Kavita Mittapalli

Kavita Mittapalli, Ph.D., is the CEO of MN Associates, Inc. She brings over 18 years of experience in conducting research and evaluation for various programs and initiatives. She started MNA while in grad school at George Mason University (VA). An agriculture graduate turned applied sociologist and a mixed methodologist by training, Kavita brings her extensive qualitative and quantitative research skills to the evaluation work she does.

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