Cathy Malerba, Phd Email & Phone Number

Austin, Texas, United States

In this role, I have the privilege of leading a thoughtful, creative team of researchers and evaluators who share a passion supporting the work of K-12 educators and school leaders. The Research & Evaluation practice area has a growing national presence providing evaluation services directly to school districts as well as long-standing partnerships with state education agencies, regional educational service centers (ESCs), and large research and evaluation firms. Because we have an experienced, internal business consulting team, Gibson is uniquely positioned to include program efficiency and effectiveness audits as part of our evaluations, helping our clients better understand the systems that are producing their current results, and providing a path forward for improved outcomes.

Austin, Texas, United States

My primary accomplishment in this role was initiating a longitudinal evaluation agenda, largely guided by Utilization Focused and Developmental Evaluation frameworks. I also facilitated the development of an initial set of evaluation questions for each of the major program areas and answered these questions using extant data. During my time at Holdsworth, I built strong working relationships with program directors, laying the foundation for a deeper level of collaboration between the programs teams and the Learning & Impact Team. I contributed to the ongoing refinement of internal KPIs by considering the types of data that would be most actionable and most aligned to long-term program goals. In partnership with operations staff, I developed the final recommendation for a new data warehouse and data visualization tool.

Round Rock, Texas

As the point person for internal, state and federal accountability, my responsibilities included working closely with the Superintendent and department and school leaders to provide data and insights that supported continuous system improvement. This included facilitating the development of district goals and monthly and annual monitoring reports to the leadership team and Board of Trustees. I also supervised staff across the Departments of Assessment & Accountability, Research & Evaluation, and Instructional Data Support.

Round Rock, Tx

Responsibilities in this position included designing and implementing district-wide, multisite, and longitudinal program evaluations and conducting institutional research in response to district priorities. I also was responsible for the development, administration, and reporting of district-wide student, staff, and parent surveys, and facilitated the external research review process. I also supervised highly-skilled (masters- and doctoral-level) analysts.

Austin, Texas Area

In this position I had the unique opportunity to develop a performance management framework for the district and to collaborate with Information Technology staff to develop performance management dashboards and reporting tools for monitoring the implementation of the strategic plan. As part of the implementation of this work, I assisted senior cabinet members and directors in the development of appropriate metrics for their areas. I also provided direct, ad hoc research and evaluation support to the Chief Performance Officer and assisted him in the implementation of a new Assessment Department.

In this position, I supervised team of Evaluation Analysts. Our team was responsible for evaluating the bilingual/English as a second language/dual language, and prekindergarten programs and managing the external research application and data sharing processes. I also continued to conduct ad hoc data analysis and reporting for principals, directors, and executives.

In this role, I assisted in the evaluation of the district’s teacher incentive pay (REACH) program and the Middle Level Education Plans, conducted extensive research regarding student drop out risk and managed the administration, analysis and reporting of the High School Exit Survey. I also conducted ad hoc data analysis and reporting for principals, directors, and executives and managed the external research application process.