Omaha Public Schools · 2024, 2025
Native & Indigenous-Centered Education
Research-driven, culturally responsive programming for 90+ Native students and families.
Role
Education Specialist
Client
Omaha Public Schools
Year
2024, 2025
Focus
Community Research, Program Evaluation, K-12
Overview
Designed and delivered culturally responsive workshops for Native students and their families, paired with a mixed-methods evaluation framework to measure what was working.
Context
The district needed programming that genuinely served Native and Indigenous community members, not just symbolically. That meant centering community voice in both the curriculum and the evaluation.
Impact
Program engagement up 30% and student retention up 20%. Funding secured to expand Indigenous education programming the following year.
90+
Native students & families served
$35K+
Program funding secured
+30%
Engagement lift
Research goals
- Build programming that genuinely serves Native and Indigenous community members, not just symbolically.
- Center community voice in both curriculum and evaluation.
- Generate evidence strong enough to secure ongoing funding.
Methods
- Designed weekly workshops and inclusive curriculum materials addressing educational and cultural needs.
- Built a mixed-methods evaluation framework using surveys, interviews, and program evaluations.
- Wrote grants and built stakeholder partnerships to secure $35K+ in program funding.
Research process
Community-rooted curriculum design
Designed weekly workshops and inclusive curriculum materials addressing the educational and cultural needs surfaced directly by Native students and families, not assumed from outside the community.
Mixed-methods evaluation framework
Built an evaluation framework combining surveys, interviews, and program evaluations so qualitative voice and quantitative outcomes could be read together when reporting back to the district and to funders.
Stakeholder partnerships & grant writing
Wrote grants and built partnerships with district stakeholders and community organizations to secure $35K+ in program funding, translating evaluation findings into a funding case.
Iterating on what worked
Used evaluation data to refine workshop design across the year, lifting program engagement 30% and student retention 20%.
Key research decisions
Lessons learned
What I'd carry forward.
Culturally responsive design isn't a nice-to-have, engagement rose once the program genuinely reflected the community it served.
A mixed-methods evaluation framework turned 'it feels like it's working' into a defensible retention gain.
Grant writing is a research skill: funding meant translating community needs into a funder's language.
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