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RESEARCH & EVALUATION

THRIVE‘s research and evaluation efforts are focused on determining the impact of THRIVE’s work on school/district culture, educator experience, and teacher retention.

Broadly, we seek answers to the following questions:

  • We use our framework as a lens to make key aspects of culture visible and measurable across our partner districts.
  • We identify and examine how specific facets of culture relate to educators’ sense of trust, belonging, shared purpose, and psychological safety.
  • We explore how districts that engage in THRIVE programming compare to those that don’t in terms of school culture, workplace climate, and teacher retention.
  • We study if and how participation in THRIVE is related to early-career and experienced educators’ decisions to remain in the profession.

RESEARCHERS

Beth Maloch, Ed.D.
Principal Investigator

Senior Associate Dean,
College of Education

link to bio

Melissa Wetzel, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator

Professor and Chair of Curriculum & Instruction,
College of Education

link to bio

LeAnne Hernandez, Ph.D.

Director, THRIVE

link to bio

Kelly Ocasio, Ph.D.

Assistant Director, THRIVE

link to bio

Audrey See, Ph.D.

Design, Research, & Technology Admin, THRIVE

link to bio

Emily McDonald, M.A., NBCT

Graduate Research Assistant & Ph.D. Candidate

link to bio

Valerie Taylor, M.Ed.

Graduate Research Assistant & Ph.D. Candidate

link to bio

Angie House, M.Ed.

Graduate Research Assistant & Ph.D. Candidate

link to bio

PUBLICATIONS

  • Ocasio, K., See, A., Hernandez, L., Wetzel, M. M., Maloch, B. (2026). Using Design Methodology to Develop a Responsive New Teacher Mentorship Program. [Manuscript submitted for publication].
  • See, A., Hernandez, L., Alexander, K., Maloch, B., Wetzel, M. M. (2026). Documenting the Design of a Human-Centered, Discursively Informed Executive Dashboard. [Manuscript submitted for publication].
  • Hernandez, L., See, A., McDonald, E., Taylor, V., Wetzel, M. M., Maloch, B. (2025). University mentors respond to the complexity of early career teacher challenges: ‘It all lands in their laps‘. [Manuscript submitted for publication].
  • Maloch, B., Ries, E., Murdter-Atkinson, J., See, A., Alexander, K., & Wetzel, M. M. (2025). “Change happens at the speed of trust”: Context-attentive mentoring for early career teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 153, 104817. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2024.104817.
  • Murdter-Atkinson, J., Ries, E., Maloch, B., Hernandez, L., Alexander, K., See, A., & Wetzel, M. M. (2024). “I am lucky to be surrounded by so much talent”: Growing a Professional Learning Community for Early Career Teacher Mentors. In Care and Teachers in the Induction Years  (pp. 130-140). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781032707471-16/.
  • Wetzel, M. M., Maloch, B., Alexander, K., Murdter-Atkinson, J. A., Ries, E., See, A., & McLean, J. (2023). “Reading” Into Statistics: Systems Analysis and Action in an Early Career Mentor Community. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 72(1), 278-299. https://doi.org/10.1177/23813377231184739.

DATA PRIVACY & PARTICIPANT CONFIDENTIALITY

The THRIVE research team prioritizes participant privacy and consent. User responses are confidential and only accessible to the THRIVE research team at The University of Texas at Austin; individual and/or identifiable information collected for research and evaluation purposes is not shared with districts, schools, or participants’ colleagues. Findings are reported only in aggregate to support improvement efforts, or de-identified using pseudonyms if shared in research publications and presentations. Guided by a human-centered approach, our team uses data to understand systems and experiences– not to evaluate individuals.