Senior Education Researcher, SRI Education
Carol Tate specializes in design, research, and evaluation projects with a focus on improving teaching quality in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Her expertise is in instrument development, qualitative data collection, analysis, and reporting. Tate’s primary research interest relates to how curriculum design and contextual factors interact to affect teaching quality and student learning. In recent work at SRI, she has evaluated professional development initiatives and efforts to broaden access to computer science education in K–12.
Tate leads the evaluation of eDGE, a University of Missouri project focused on integrating computational thinking with elementary mathematics through game design. She also co-leads the evaluation of the STEM Core Alliance, an NSF INCLUDES project focused on creating a pathway to bring underrepresented and underprepared community college students to a foundational skill level required for A.S., B.S., and industry employment in STEM fields. For the ASSIST project, Tate develops educative resources and teacher professional development for middle school teachers of computer science to support the use of formative assessment and progress toward standards. Tate recently led the implementation study portion of the multiyear evaluation of CoolThink@JC, a 32-school pilot of a new computational thinking curriculum for primary students in Hong Kong.
Tate holds a PhD in Education from Rutgers University Graduate School of Education, and an A.B. in History from Brown University.
Key projects
- eDGE eSTEM Deisgning Games for Education
- Evaluation of CoolThink@JC
- STEM Core – Evaluation of NSF INCLUDES Alliance Project
- PINC Promoting Inclusivity in Computing