Date: Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Hello, AEA365 community! Liz DiLuzio here, Lead Curator of the blog. This week is Individuals Week, which means we take a break from our themed weeks and spotlight the Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources and Lessons Learned from any evaluator interested in sharing. Would you like to contribute to future individuals weeks? Email me at AEA365@eval.org with an idea or a draft and we will make it happen.
Hello AEA365 readers! My name is Angelica Frausto, and I am a Senior Research & Evaluation Associate at EduDream. We are a Latina-founded, women-owned, and equity-focused research consulting firm that partners with nonprofits, foundations, and education institutions to provide culturally responsive and community-centered research and strategy.
As a Latine researcher, my own identity affords me to connect and establish greater connections with Latine participants when conducting research evaluations. However, socioeconomic barriers, and a history of harmful and unethical research practices that have targeted Latine communities, in addition to language and cultural barriers make reaching this community more challenging. Additionally, the Latine community is incredibly diverse, and the U.S. Census shows that they account for 71% of the population growth between 2022 and 2023. Therefore, it is important to navigate the Latine community’s diversity in a culturally responsive and equitable manner. Here are some hot tips to center the cultura of multigenerational Latine populations throughout the data collection and engagement phases.
At EduDream, we collaborate with partners to develop and refine data collection tools and outreach materials, ensuring they are culturally sensitive, relevant, and appropriate. We have found that co-creation requires establishing regular touchpoints with partners to build rapport and gather feedback from those closest to the community (e.g., grantees, program officers, and community partners). In our co-creation sessions, we gather partner insights on what strategies and language will work best to get community members excited about participating in the evaluation while reducing the potential for perpetuating harm.
In our experience, engaging with Latine communities means being prepared to reach out to community members who have recently immigrated as well as those who’ve been in the U.S. for generations. It also means being aware of additional barriers to participation. For example, individuals from undocumented or mixed immigration status households may have legitimate fears regarding sharing personal information. There’s no single data collection tool or method that will work for such a wide range of lived experiences. To ensure you’re not unintentionally excluding potential participants, your data collection approach should include a variety of recruitment tools (e.g., English and Spanish videos and flyers, word-of-mouth) and data collection methods (e.g., in-person interviews and virtual focus groups conducted in English and Spanish, feedback surveys).
As the evaluation unfolds, our initial assumptions about what works for engaging Latine individuals may not always align with participants’ lived experiences. Because of this, we make sure to leave some wiggle room in our evaluation plan to address unforeseen challenges and make changes based on community input. By refining our data collection strategies in response to ongoing feedback, we continue to center the voices of Latine participants.
While these equity considerations are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to engaging diverse Latine communities, understanding our participants more deeply ensures we not only meet their needs strategically but also have the greatest impact through our work.
Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.