Raquel González, Ph.D.

Raquel Gonzalez, Ph.D., has over 20 years of experience conducting research and evaluations focused on early childhood development, K-12 school systems, and institutes of higher education. Her work includes developing and conducting evaluations aimed at supporting the whole child, with a focus on children from birth to five and their families. She also has led large-scale impact evaluations to assess the efficacy of programs. She brings expertise working with a variety of local and state agencies in California, as well as with foundations and non-profits. Dr. Gonzalez uses a holistic and collaborative approach to her work, including engaging with key stakeholders throughout the process and being sensitive during data collection to ensure methods are not extractive. 

Dr. Gonzalez came to Abt from Social Policy Research Associates (SPR), where she developed, designed, conducted, and managed evaluations that captured community voices, used a variety of data, and provided actionable results. There, she led an Outcomes Evaluation Study for First 5 Monterey County (F5MC) that explored systems-level change across four programs, including technical assistance to early childhood educators, care coordination, an Infant and Family Early Child Mental Health training series, and strategic communication key influencers in the county. As part of this work, she engaged with key stakeholders, developed three summary reports to inform F5MC’s strategic planning, and presented results to the F5MC commissioners. Other clients included First 5 California, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the San Francisco Foundation.

Prior to joining SPR, Dr. Gonzalez led a couple of randomized controlled trials as an employee of the American Institutes for Research (AIR), including First 5 Los Angeles’ Welcome Baby Home Visiting Impact Study. She also served as a co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate grant.

Expertise

• Research and evaluation
• Survey methodology
• Early childhood development
• K-16 education

Publications

• Tanenbaum, C., Cole, S., González, R., & Essoka, M. (2020). Who Can Succeed? How Bridge to the Doctorate Programs Are Changing the Conversation Around Admissions Practices in STEM. Understanding Interventions, II (2), 1-28.
• Spier, E., González, R., & Osher, D. (2018). The role of the community in learning and development. In G.E. Hall, L.F. Quinn, and D.M. Gollinck (Eds.) The Handbook on Teaching and Learning. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
• González, R. (2022). Building the early childhood workforce: Findings of First 5 Monterey County’s technical assistance and seminars to early childhood centers. Oakland, CA: Social Policy Research Associates.
• González, R. & Sarver, M. (2021). The Story of Now: A data snapshot of HOPE SF residents. https://www.hope-sf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/HOPE-SF-The-Story-of-Now-4.pdf
• Levin, J., Brodziak de los Reyes, I., Atchinson, D., González, R., Martin, A., Kearns, C. (2021). Evaluation of Los Angeles Unified School District’s Student Equity Needs Index. Oakland, CA: American Institutes for Research.