ACF program and research staff have been working to build a new narrative on research and evaluation in Native communities. Our work is guided by the publication A Roadmap for Collaborative and Effective Evaluation in Tribal Communities, which was published by ACF’s Children’s Bureau in 2014. This Native American Heritage Month, we are sharing how ACF approaches research and evaluation with Native Communities and some of our research products from this work. The evaluation and research that OPRE does with American Indian and Alaska Native communities is grounded in ACF’s evaluation policy and guided by the Roadmap.
The Roadmap, developed by a workgroup comprised of experts in the field of American Indian and Alaska Native population research, Tribal Child Welfare program representatives, evaluators experienced in working in Native contexts, and Federal program partners, is a guide informed by Indigenous knowledge and culture that can assist in building more credible, relevant, and adaptable evidence across communities.
At its core, the Roadmap is a call to action for building a new narrative on research and evaluation in Native communities through bi-directional partnerships between programmatic experts and evaluators. Within ACF, we model these bi-directional partnerships with a focus on relationship building and bi-directional skill building between program-focused and research-focused colleagues.
We also aim to provide leadership for the evaluation of ACF programs in Native contexts that is grounded in the values articulated in the Roadmap:
- Community Engagement
- Indigenous Ways of Knowing
- Respect for Tribal Sovereignty
- Strengths Focus
- Cultural & Scientific Rigor
- Knowledge Sharing
- Ethical Practices
For example, it is important that research and evaluation be rigorous. However, when most researchers think of rigor, they think of scientific rigor and the scientific method. While scientific rigor is important, the Roadmap points out how cultural rigor is just as important, especially when working with Native communities. Cultural rigor includes incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing and cultural knowledge and methods along with strong scientific methods and designs.
As another example, in the context of research and evaluation, valuing community engagement is often understood as a spectrum ranging from top-down studies with limited community engagement to studies that are community initiated and led. With a focus on tribal sovereignty, the Roadmap calls for research and evaluation at the latter end of this spectrum that emphasize relationship building, co-creation of knowledge, and the time necessary for those to occur.
The practice-based research network approach of the Tribal Early Childhood Research Center (TRC) is an exemplar of these two values in action, Cultural & Scientific Rigor and Community Engagement. The TRC creates Communities of Learning (CoL) to build collaborations between researchers, AIAN Head Start Directors, Tribal MIECHV Program Directors, and Tribal Child Care Directors to co-create knowledge relevant to children’s development in Native contexts. A recently co-created research product from the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) CoL is the publication Cultural and Practice Perspectives on the Classroom Assessment Scoring System: Voices from American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Programs .
In addition to the TRC, OPRE has several ongoing research and evaluation project and capacity building efforts specifically focused on American Indians and Alaska Natives. The values of the Roadmap guide our day-to-day practices and larger scale evaluation activities of human services such as Head Start, child welfare, and family assistance. Explore resources OPRE released in 2021 relating to Native American and Indigenous communities:
- Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Tribal HPOG 2.0 Grantees’ Program Adaptations
- American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (AIAN FACES): 2021-22 Data Collection Flyer
- Case Study of an Innovative Program Serving Families Who Are Homeless: 'Ohana Nui - Family Assessment Centers
- Webinar: New Findings on Cultural & Language Experiences of Tribal Head Start Children
- Webinar: Region XI American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Informational Webinar
- Descriptive Data on Region XI Head Start Children and Families: AIAN FACES Fall 2019 Data Tables and Study Design
- At a Glance: Region XI Head Start During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Communicating with Families
- At a Glance: Region XI Head Start During the COVID-19 Pandemic: New Supports for Staff
- At a Glance: Region XI Head Start During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Preparation for Future Emergencies
- Designing and Conducting Home Visiting Evaluations in Tribal Communities: Takeaways from the HomVEE Tribal Review — 2017
- Developing Home Visiting Models for Tribal Communities: Takeaways from the HomVEE Tribal Review — 2017
- Implementing a Home Visiting Model in Tribal Communities: Takeaways from the HomVEE Tribal Review — 2017
- American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey 2015: Key Findings from Fall 2015 and Spring 2016
- Implementation of Tribal HPOG 2.0: Integration of tribal culture into healthcare training programs
- Fall 2019 First Findings from a National Study of AIAN Head Start Programs: What can we learn and how can we use the data in our work?
- COVID-19 Response in Region XI AIAN Head Start: How Children’s Centers and Programs Faced the Pandemic
- Assessing the Research on Home Visiting Interventions Implemented with Tribal Populations Part 2: Lessons Learned about Implementation and Evaluation
- Assessing the Research on Home Visiting Interventions Implemented with Tribal Populations Part 1: Evidence of Effectiveness
- Designing and Conducting Early Childhood Home Visiting Evaluations in Tribal Communities: Takeaways from the HomVEE Review of Research with Tribal Populations
- Developing, Tailoring, and Implementing Early Childhood Home Visiting Models in Tribal Communities: Takeaways from the HomVEE Review of Research with Tribal Populations
- State-Tribal Collaboration in Home Visiting: Lessons Learned for Improving Data Collection and Utilization
- Supporting Data Systems Improvement in Tribal Home Visiting: Capacity Built and Lessons Learned
- Communication Guide for TTCW Grantees: What to Consider When Sharing Program Accomplishments
Aleta Meyer is a Senior Social Science Research Analyst and Lead for Primary Prevention and Resilience whose work includes the translation of research on early adversity and chronic stress to ACF programs, community-engaged research to evaluate human services programs that serve Indigenous communities in the United States, and positive youth development.