Melissa Dodson
Evaluation Manager

Dr. Dodson is Evaluation Manager with SEDL’s Research and Evaluation unit. In this role, she provides overall leadership for SEDL’s evaluation research efforts. This work includes current evaluations of the Texas and Southeast Comprehensive Centers; the Evaluation Capacity Building (ECB) technical assistance efforts as part of those centers; the Lunar Planetary Institute’s MyMoon project funded by NASA; the evaluation of Girlstart, an afterschool program targeting girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); and the evaluation of the Mathworks curriculum, a middle school math curriculum that prepares all students to take algebra in the eighth grade. A recent addition to Dr. Dodson’s portfolio is a planning grant to develop rigorous research designs for evaluating the UTeach STEM teacher preparation program using a team of national leading experts to assist. Dr. Dodson co-manages the Research and Evaluation unit with Dr. Michael Vaden-Kiernan and serves on the SEDL Management Council.

Contact Information
You may contact Melissa Dodson at 512-391-6606

or by using SEDL's contact form.

Areas of Expertise
Dr. Dodson has more than 12 years of experience designing and implementing large- and small-scale evaluation studies primarily in STEM education, teacher education, and program replication. In particular, she has extensive experience in formative and summative evaluation of the UTeach STEM teacher preparation program. She also has led state and national evaluation projects that included the collection and use of state and local longitudinal data systems. These projects include several Texas evaluations for the Texas Education Agency focused on High School Completion and Limited English Proficiency. Dr. Dodson’s interests include evaluations in the areas of STEM, teacher education, teacher quality, organizational change, school improvement, and the scale-up and replication of educational programs. She has experience designing program-level, statewide, and national studies involving multiple sites and mixed methods and analyses.

Experience
Dr. Dodson rejoined SEDL in January 2011. Prior to returning, she was manager of program replication and evaluation for the UTeach Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. In this role, she designed and implemented the evaluation of the UTeach math and science teacher preparation program, which is being replicated at numerous universities across the nation. She also worked at the University of Texas at Austin from 1999 to 2002, serving as the first academic adviser and program evaluator for the UTeach program. From 2003 to 2006, Dr. Dodson worked as a program associate with SEDL’s Research & Evaluation Services unit. In this role, she coordinated a number of evaluation studies of statewide, cross-state, and local educational interventions and initiatives.

Dr. Dodson served as a select panel member of the Evaluation and Redesign of University Teacher Educator Programs for the Louisiana Board of Regents. She is also a recipient of the Rogers L. Barton Award (2005), which is the SEDL Presidential Award for outstanding contributions to education research, and of the Advising Council Advising Excellence Award (2001–2002) from the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin.

Education
Dr. Dodson has a BA in liberal arts with majors in psychology and English literature and a PhD in educational psychology with a specialization in learning, cognition, and instruction from the University of Texas at Austin.

SEDL Publications

• Professional Teaching and Learning Cycle, Lancaster School District (2011)
• Evaluation of the Texas High School Completion and Success Grant Initiative, Cycle 2 Final Report (2007)
• Evaluation of the Texas High School Completion and Success Grant Initiative, Cycle 2 Interim Report (2007)
• Evaluation of Educator Professional Development Programs Implemented at the Regional and Local Levels Final Report (2006)
• Evaluation of Texas A&M University System's Support Activities Related to Limited English Proficient Student Success Initiative, Cycle 1 Grants (2006)
• The Evaluation of Texas 21ST Century Community Learning Center Projects: Common Features of Promising Afterschool Programs in Texas Executive Summary (2006)

Selected External Publications

• Dodson, M. M., Hughes, K., & LaQuey Parker, T. (2008, 2009, 2010). The UTeach Institute’s strategic plan for UTeach replication. Austin, TX: The University of Texas at Austin.
• Dodson, M. M., Dougan, A., Frisby, C., Johnson, M., Kozloff, M., & Madigan, K. (2002). Recommendations of the external evaluators’ redesign teacher preparation program: Undergraduate programs, masters alternative certification, & practitioner teacher programs. Baton Rouge: Louisiana Board of Regents. 
• Dodson, M. M. (2000). Monologic and dialogic conversations: How pre-service teachers socially construct knowledge through oral and computer-mediated classroom discourse. In T. Shanahan & F. V. Rodríguez-Brown (Eds.), Literacies for the 21st century: Research and practice (49th yearbook of the National Reading Conference, pp. 137–152). Chicago, IL: National Reading Conference.
• Schallert, D. L., Lissi, M. R., Reed, J. H., Dodson, M. M., Benton, R. E., & Hopkins, L. F. (1996). How coherence is socially constructed in oral and written classroom discussions of reading assignments. In D. J. Leu, C. K. Kinzer, & K. A. Hinchman (Eds.), Literacies for the 21st century: Research and practice (45th yearbook of the National Reading Conference, pp. 471–483). Chicago, IL: National Reading Conference.

Selected Presentations

• Raphael, L., Costello, L., Lumbley, J., Dodson, M. (2012, October). Collaborative capacity building: A positive psychology perspective for evaluation. Paper session presented at the Annual Conference of the American Evaluation Association, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• Dodson, M. M. (2008, 2009, 2010). Overview of UTeach evaluation. Presentation at the UTeach Institute Annual Conference, Austin, TX.
• Hughes, K., & Dodson, M. M. (2009, 2010). What is UTeach replication? Presentation at the UTeach Institute Annual Conference, Austin, TX.
• LaQuey Parker, T., Walker, M., Hughes, K., & Dodson, M. M. (2009). What is UTeach replication? Presentation to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and the Tennessee State Board of Education, Nashville, TN.
• Dodson, M. M. (2006). The evaluation of Texas A&M University System’s support activities related to Limited English Proficient Student Success Initiative Cycle 1 Grants. Presentation to the Texas Education Agency, Austin, TX.
• The Evaluation Team of Gibson Consulting Group, & SEDL. (2005). Preliminary findings related to the evaluation of the Texas High School Completion and Success (THSCS) Grants. Presentation to the Texas Education Agency, Austin, TX.
• Dodson, M. M., Carmack, G. D., & La Turner, R. J. (2001). Who is responsible for teacher education? Changing the role of colleges of natural sciences in preparing secondary mathematics and science teachers. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Seattle, WA.
• Dodson, M. M., & Walker, M. H. (2001). Shared responsibility for recruiting and retaining caring and competent teachers. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Dallas, TX.
• Schallert, D. L., Reed, J. H., Dodson, M. M., Benton, R. E., Boardman, A. G., Amador, N. A., Coward, F. L., & Beth, A. (2001). What does it mean to be psychologically engaged in an electronically-mediated classroom discussion? Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Seattle, WA.
• Marder, M., Dodson, M. M., & Carmack, G. D. (2000). Who is responsible for teacher education? The benefits of real collaboration. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Education Trust, Washington, DC.