Research & Evaluation
Like our other education services, Griffin Center’s work in research and evaluation is currently centered on studies in arts instruction and literacy development. Our lead investigators and senior researchers hold degrees from top ranking research universities and specialize in the design and implementation of mixed methods studies, which provide the quantitative evidence of student learning and a qualitative explanation of the instructional strategies and mechanisms that afford student learning successes.
Lead Investigators
Kim Atwill, PhD is a notable emerging voice in the field of early language acquisition and literacy development. She has studied numerous factors impacting literacy acquisition with current projects focusing on the role of second language proficiency in English literacy acquisition and the relationship between executive functioning and all literacy skills.
Dr. Atwill received a doctorate from the Graduate School of Education at Arizona State University with an emphasis in Educational Psychology. She was a finalist for Dissertation of the Year from the International Reading Association for her investigation of cross-language transfer of pre-literacy skills among kindergarteners with limited first language skills. This research project has continued for four more years and the results have been published in respected academic journals, including the Journal of Educational Research, Reading Psychology, and the Journal of Hispanic Higher Education.
Dr. Atwill also has expertise in the use of advanced statistical methods, including Multivariate Analysis, Structural Equation Modeling, and Hierarchical Linear Modeling—all developed for use with large-scale datasets. In 2008, Dr. Atwill received specialized training and access to large-scale national datasets at the Institute of Education Sciences National Center for Educational Statistics, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE).
Lynn Waldorf, PhD is a nationally recognized expert in research methodology used in arts education studies. In the past decade she has studied numerous topics in arts education including teaching artists, teacher professional development, artist-teacher collaborations, community partnerships, strategic planning, arts assessment, student achievement and their preparation for creative careers.
Dr. Waldorf received a doctorate from the Graduate School of Education from the University of California at Los Angeles with emphases in Education Research Methodology, Urban Schooling and the Evaluation in Arts Programs. She is a recipient of the Leigh Burstein Award for innovation in research methods and the American Education Research Association Dissertation Award in Arts and Learning.
Her work on the role of the arts in public schooling has been included in seminal arts education research volumes, including Champions for Change, Critical Links, and Evaluating the Impact of Arts and Cultural Education, a 2008 publication of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. Her research and evaluation activities have been funded through client-procured grants from the U.S. Department of Education, California Arts Council, California State Legislature, Wallace Foundation, Sony Entertainment Foundation and the Eisner Foundation, among others. Additional support has been provided through university research projects conducted for the University of Northern Colorado, UCLA and the California State University Chancellor’s Office.
Large Scale Projects
Dr. Waldorf is currently collaborating with Los Angeles County Arts Commission staff, district arts coordinators and other local arts education experts in the design and piloting of a large-scale data collection system measuring the equity of student access to quality arts instruction in Los Angeles County Schools. This effort is part of the Arts for All initiative, a project adopted and championed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
In addition to local and regional program studies, Drs. Atwill and Waldorf have managed multi-state project evaluations including the study of school principals as instructional leaders, capacity building for state education leaders in implementing broad-based instructional reforms, and literacy achievement. Through its growing network of research and evaluation associates, Griffin Center is able to manage studies of considerable size and scope.
