Natalia has been an integral part of the Campus & Community Engagement department this past year. Her job is to evaluate the Performing Arts and Academic Collaborative (PAAC) program that began in 2006 with Del Valle ISD. The program works to integrate artistic performances with the curriculum of middle and high school students in Del Valle ISD. With the program beginning four years ago, this is the first graduating class from Del Valle that has been through the program for all four years of high school. More information on the PAAC program can be found here http://texasperformingarts.org/engagemen….
I learned a lot talking with Natalia because this is a field that I didn’t know anything about before. I am always impressed by the broad spectrum of talents we have under one roof. It’s truly stunning.
As a program evaluator, Natalia has worked to assess the impact of the program by evaluating the project goals that were set forth four years ago. The Del Valle students who participated in the program saw three performances each year, and they were asked to take a survey after each performance. Natalia has analyzed these results and with these and other measures she has tried to determine the program’s outcomes. The four goals of the PAAC program are:
1. Increase exposure to the arts
2. Improve language arts achievement
3. Improve drop-out rates
4. Increase cultural awareness
Many people would argue that it is difficult to measure such goals because the arts can be so subjective, but Natalia has worked to determine the best way to measure each. Sometimes the qualitative data is just as, if not more, important as the quantitative data.
With a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Natalia is currently working on her Masters in Educational Psychology. Her work at Texas Performing Arts has been a great opportunity for Natalia to learn the entire field of program evaluation, which she wasn’t so familiar with before working here. Now she has real experience in a very specific and specialized field.
The most challenging part of Natalia’s job is that she had to begin evaluating a program that was already developed. She informed me that most organizations call in a program evaluator to start from the beginning by setting the program goals, designing the program, and following through until the final analysis is complete. Coming at the tail end of the program makes it difficult, but she has learned a lot nonetheless. Natalia really enjoys her work because at the end of the day she is talking about improving education.
Born in Mexico City, Natalia and her husband came to Austin two years ago. Her husband is also here at UT working on his PhD in Environmental Engineering. In her spare time, Natalia enjoys running and recently completed a full marathon.
