Dylan Farmer

Dylan Farmer has worked with the Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University since 2009, originally serving as a research associate in the Institute for Evidence-Based Education and a Senior Program Manager at the Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE). As the Assistant Director of Strategic Partnerships at CORE, Dylan focuses on developing client relationships with key community public school, nonprofit and philanthropic partners. In addition, Dylan oversees a portfolio of research and evaluation projects, primarily focusing in the areas of early childhood education and after-school and summer programming. Past projects include the development of computer adaptive assessments, collective impact evaluation, program development, program feasibility and effectiveness studies, Item Response Theory, and concurrent and predictive validity studies.

Since joining CORE in 2013, Dylan has developed a passion for collaboration with community partners and leveraging partnership, data interoperability, legal infrastructure, and formative evaluation to create systems for data-informed continuous improvement aimed at helping youth and families in underserved communities gain access to quality education and social-sector program services. In addition to being a certified EC-6 classroom teacher, she is proficient in program evaluation, advanced quantitative research methods, instrument design, large-scale data collection, database management, and programming language for statistical data analysis. Dylan has a Master of Education (2011) and a B.S. in Sociology with a focus on Markets and Culture (2009) from Southern Methodist University.

Selected Publications and Presentations

Kara, Y., Farmer, D. E., Wright, A., Kamata, A., Hujar, J., and Baker, S. K. (2024). Examining the effects of prekindergarten to second grade classroom quality on early elementary achievement. Front. Educ. 9:1370573. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1370573

Baker, S.K., Kamata, A., Wright, A., Farmer, D., & Nippert, R. (2018). Using propensity score matching to estimate treatment effects of afterschool programs on third-grade reading outcomes. Journal of Community Psychology, 47(1), pp.117-134.

Farmer, D., Wright, A., & Moore, T. (2017). Dallas Afterschool Student Outcomes Project. Presented at American Evaluation Association Conference, Washington, D.C

Wright, A., Farmer, D., Lan, P., & Johns, R. (2017). Promoting Student Outcomes by Increasing Afterschool Site Quality. Unpublished white paper.

Wright, A., Zannou, Y., Farmer, D., & Rahim, H. (2016). When to Use Which Design: A Description of Consultative, Developmental, Formative & Summative Approaches to Evaluating Educational Initiatives. Presented at: American Evaluation Associate Conference, Atlanta, GA.

Farmer, D., & Wright, A. (2016). Utilizing CLASSTM to Improve Early Childhood Quality: A University-Education. Agency Partnership. Presented at: American Evaluation Associate Conference, Atlanta, GA.

Baker, D., Mogna, V., Rodriguez, S, Farmer, D, & Yovanoff, P (2016). Building the oral language of young Hispanic children through interactive read alouds and vocabulary games at preschool and at home. Journal of International Special Needs Education, 19(2), pp.81-94.

Wright, A., Farmer, D. & Nippert, N. (2015). The School Zone: A campus-community collective impact intervention to reduce education disparities using the interactive systems framework. Presented in Symposium entitled: Innovations in implementation science: Systems science methods community psychologists use to promote health and well-being in communities. At: Society for Community Research and Action Biennial Conference; June 2015, Lowell, MA.

Wright, A., Farmer, D., Nippert, N., Rahim, H., (2015). Development of The School Zone Interactive Systems Framework evaluation plan. In, Investigating a Complex Interactive Systems Model for Involving Communities in Education. Presented at: American Evaluation Association Conference, Chicago, IL.

Zannou, Y., Wright, A., Nippert, N., & Farmer, D. (2015). Providing and evaluating technical assistance within The School Zone. In, Building capacities in community organizations: lessons learned from three community psychologists. Presented at American Evaluation Association Conference, Chicago, IL.

Wright, A., Farmer, D., Nippert, N., & Zannou, Y. (2015). Investigating a complex interactive systems model for involving communities in education. Presented at American Evaluation Association Conference, Chicago, IL.

Wright, A., Farmer, D., & Johns, R. (under review). Promoting Student Outcomes by Increasing Afterschool Site Quality.