CSDE Affiliate Melanie Martin is looking for a graduate student collaborator(s) to help with a year-long community-based participatory research project based in a local Lake City elementary school to study the impacts of culturally sustaining and asset-based pedagogical approaches in early education.

Dr. Martin is looking for graduate student collaborators who would benefit from research participation in one or more of the following areas:

(1) Commiting to weekly volunteer work at the school (1 – 3 one hour small group reading sessions per week) and writing up their notes as participant observers

(2) Assisting with project management (overseeing undergraduate volunteers, data management)

(3) Assisting with qualitative analysis of observations collected across participant-observer volunteers

(4) Assisting with quantitative analysis of student reading scores and attendance across the year

 

This is a new project Dr. Martin is embarking on in collaboration with the school principal. Dr. Martin is a parent, regular volunteer, and PTA Advocacy Chair at this school. They are still in the early planning stages, but want to get volunteers registered with SPS as soon as possible, as the registration approval process takes 4-5 weeks (see instructions below).

 

Dr. Martin does not have paid RAships or any kind of funding for this project. However, she would be happy to pursue and support funding opportunities, and any other extensions of this project (publications, continued or expanded research with other schools, next year, etc) that would benefit you. Dr. Martin’s only plans for the results are to present reports to the school, SPS Board of Directors, and SPS central admin.

 

If interested, please reach out! Dr. Martin is happy to answer any questions and discuss anything with you in person or on zoom. Please feel free to forward this to any undergraduate students you’ve worked with, or graduate students in other departments who may be interested. Dr. Martin is basing the volunteer participant-observer structure on a CELE course she teaches, so she is happy to work with anyone committed to the project, regardless of prior research experience.

 

Thanks for your time and for considering!

 

Project Summary

 

John Rogers Elementary (JRE) is a small Title 1 neighborhood K-5 school in the Lake City area of northeast Seattle (2025-2026 projected enrollment 280 students). The student body is diverse with high resource needs: 61% students of color, 42% multilingual learner (MLL) students, 18% special education served, 23% experiencing homelessness, and 56% on free and reduced lunch. The JRE principal (Dr. Casey Dimsey) is implementing several new evidence-based innovations for the 2025-26 school year aimed at improving student academic and emotional-behavioral outcomes. The initiatives are informed by asset-based educational approaches, including culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies. The aim of this study, conducted in full collaboration with Dr. Dimsey and JRE teachers, is to leverage qualitative data gathered from volunteers, tutors, and teachers working in 3^rd grade classrooms and small study groups to assess the efficacy of these initiatives and their alignment with underlying pedagogical frameworks. In particular, we are interested in assessing how newly implemented multi-tiered system supports help mitigate barriers for MLL students (in alignment with a JRE school-year goal) and students furthest from educational justice (in alignment with SPS district wide governance goals and guardrails).

 

Volunteering at John Rogers Elementary: 

• Martin will submit all volunteer names to the Volunteer Coordinator (Office Assistant – Alicia Kaneko) and the SPS Volunteer department (via the email). Once those names are collected, we will send prospective volunteers a link to the volunteer application with specific information about their roles and schedules for completing the application.  This application takes 4-5 weeks to process.
• All volunteers will need to have their identification verified (License, etc) by the John Roger’s Front Office before volunteering starts and this will start the approval process which takes 4-5 weeks.
• All approved volunteers will be on the “approved” list with the SPS Volunteer department and Office Assistant/Volunteer Liaison – Alicia Kaneko .   In order to volunteer, your name mustbe on that list.

Please refer to the following links for more general information about volunteering with SPS

• Volunteer Application Instructions

Dewey Data is a research platform that provides access to third-party datasets across a variety of data categories including foot traffic, construction permits, healthcare, workforce, consumer behavior, and transportation.

University of Washington faculty, students, and researchers are eligible for access and must register an individual account. Follow this link to learn about how to register.

Research by CSDE Affiliate Joan Casey (Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences) and CSDE Trainee Lauren Wilner on how the 2025 Los Angeles fires affected people’s health and how people navigated the health care system during an emergency was recently highlighted by UW Today. The underlying article was published in JAMA Health Forum. Casey, Wilner, and coauthors found that there were 8,032 excess outpatient respiratory visits and 3,375 excess virtual cardiovascular and respiratory visits, representing 27% to 44% higher than expected visits among the highly and moderately exposed groups exposed over the week following the LA fires’ ignition. Outpatient and virtual cardiovascular, injury, and neuropsychiatric visits were also elevated at the same time.

The PAA Congressional Briefing on U.S. Birth Rate Trends has been rescheduled! Members in the DC area are welcome to join us on Wednesday, December 10, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in 2075 Rayburn House Office Building for ice cream and engaging presentations about U.S. fertility trends and related policies.

An expert panel of leading social scientists will discuss national and international birth rate trends and evidence on the effects of policy incentives, such as tax credits and paid family leave, in impacting an individual’s decision to start a family. The discussion is particularly timely given the Trump Administration’s interest in encouraging higher birth rates nationwide.