We are excited to kick off Volume 4 of the Research Insights series! In our first issue in the new year, we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight some recent RPP work completed by NNERPP members. Join us as we share three short vignettes of studies you might want to know about.

IN THIS “RESEARCH INSIGHTS” EDITION

Despite the steady growth in RPPs, there is still much to be learned about the value that RPPs offer and how RPPs can best go about doing partnership work as they seek to create positive change for all students. One way we like to examine and highlight the impactful work of the RPPs in our network each year is through the NNERPP Year in Review report, which functions as a yearbook of sorts, providing snapshots of each partnership in NNERPP and the research they have conducted throughout the year. We continue to be amazed by the diversity in research topics and approaches to the work that our members undertake. Published at the end of last year, the 2021 NNERPP Year in Review once again highlighted an incredible array of projects from all of our members.

In this article, we feature just three of these projects, bringing together a study each from the West, the South, and the Northeast, selected for their unique viewpoints and contributions. The studies introduced here explore a wide range of topics and represent various partnership constellations: The first study examines the overrepresentation of African American students in special education services and suspensions in San Francisco by centering African American youth as knowledge generators; the next study explores how to support parent involvement in at-home, informal STEM learning through a partnership between a museum, a research institute, and various schools in Houston; and the final study examines kindergarten outreach, application, and enrollment in New York City and outlines the lessons learned through the close partnership work with the office of student enrollment. 

As different as these three lines of RPP research are thematically, there are similarities in how the three studies seek to improve education:

1. As is typical in RPP work, all studies were undertaken in close partnership with practice-side organizations. Here we highlight the range of practice-side institutions involved: schools, school districts, and a museum. 
2. All three studies led to changes in practice, as outlined in the “project in practice” sections below. 
3. All studies seek to address inequities across the education sector: bias and systemic racism, unequal opportunities for STEM learning, and inequities in the kindergarten application and enrollment process.

OVERVIEW

Before we dive in, let’s take a quick look at the three artifacts we’ll examine in greater detail. In Table 1, you’ll find the partnership name and brief description of the partnership in column 1 and the title and link to each research artifact in column 2.

Table 1. List of RPPs + Artifacts Included in This Article (Ordered by Region: West to Northeast)

RESEARCH VIGNETTES

(I) SAN FRANCISCO

Research Questions

This study examined what influences the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) to disproportionately identify African American students for special education services and suspension. The study examined the experiences of Black students, families, and communities in SFUSD with special education and suspensions, focusing on the strategies and suggestions families of African American children have put forward to reduce disproportionality.

Why This Study?

The overrepresentation of African American students in both suspensions and special education is a national phenomenon. Locally, SFUSD has been disproportionate in both these categories for African American youth at least three years in a row, which is why they are now required by the state to do a special plan called Comprehensive Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CCEIS). Using Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit), which highlights how racism and ableism intersect to position African American youth as less than in thinking, learning, and behavior, this research centers African American youth who have been suspended, both in and outside of special education, positioning them as knowledge generators.

Main Findings

African American students and families feel that educators were punitively responding to behavior, resulting in overidentification of Black youth for special education and in disproportionate suspensions. Specific educators are over-referring. There is a lack of cultural humility resulting in many educators struggling to authentically connect with Black youth and their families, as well as gaps in culturally responsive and anti-racist teaching and a fully implemented ethnic studies curriculum.

Many Black students feel disconnected and disenfranchised from school. The loss of Black families and communities in San Francisco contributes to Black youth experiencing cultural isolation within school sites and is exacerbated by educators who focus on punishment instead of connection with Black youth. Parents report feeling excluded from and uninformed about the special education and Individualized Education Program (IEP) process and their rights. Some policies and/or practices within the district such as ignoring, labeling, and not delivering on promises engenders distrust among parents and students. School leaders have not addressed parental concerns about race and racism in instruction and behavior.

The study identified cultural dissonance as a root cause of bias and systemic racism in SFUSD.

These findings led to several recommendations, including:

• Focus behavior plans on how adults behave toward, interact with, and respond to Black youth
• Require that special educators are included in all anti-racism training, ethnic studies pedagogy, and culturally responsive curricula
• Provide teacher support to investigate what works for the Black youth in their classrooms, and consult with students’ other teachers in the process. 
• Increase Black educators at all levels (principals, school leaders, deans, teachers, staff)
• Track which educators are over-referring Black students
• Establish professional development around recognizing bias and racism and establishing practices around this
• Give Black youth a voice in their education, schools, and district
• Create an accountability system to track how IEPs are being followed that is accessible to parents
• Build affinity spaces for Black students and families at schools with designated Black educators and staff of color

Project in Practice

Findings were used to shape the Comprehensive Coordinated Early Intervening Services plan and Special Education Plan to respond to issues with disproportionality for Black students in special education and suspension. Some of these findings triangulated other evidence gathering and analysis SFUSD leaders conducted, and some findings were new, like the idea of having a required ethnic studies curriculum kindergarten through twelfth grade to address cultural dissonance. SFUSD leaders are making connections between these findings and general education practices to achieve better outcomes for Black students. For example, SFUSD leaders are exploring ways to regain trust by recognizing and acknowledging “how” school staff and structures are experienced, or felt, by Black students and families. If trusting and respecting relationships are built by addressing barriers and changing practices, we can interrupt disproportionate and inappropriate referrals to Special Education.

(II) HOUSTON

Research Questions

This study explored the Teaching Together STEM program, an afterschool family STEM event delivered at school sites by museum-based informal science educators, and to what extent parents took up the program components and found them satisfying and feasible to use. In particular, it examined three treatment conditions and their effectiveness in increasing parental involvement in their child’s informal STEM learning. The core treatment included family engagement events and text messages. Schools were randomly assigned to business-as-usual or one of three additive treatment groups to evaluate adult behavior change techniques of adding materials and parent rewards to the core treatment.

Why This Study?

Parents play a critical role in their children’s informal, at-home STEM learning. Such home-based parent involvement is consistently linked to children’s academic outcomes. Students experiencing poverty face opportunity gaps in informal STEM learning outside of school. Additionally, parents experiencing poverty may not have time or work schedules that allow them to regularly attend school STEM events, making home-based parent involvement in STEM learning particularly important. The study explored the feasibility of the Teaching Together STEM preschool program, implemented by the Children’s Museum Houston, for increasing home-based parent involvement and reducing barriers to informal STEM learning.

Main Findings

The Teaching Together (TT) STEM program was designed by the Teaching Together partnership to increase parent involvement in STEM learning using educational family events and text messages: The events are offered at schools and facilitated by museum-based STEM experts who demonstrate how to do STEM activities with young children during everyday routines. Participating families also receive free family admission passes to a local children’s museum and text messages with actionable information and tips for parents for supporting STEM learning at home during day-to-day activities. For this study, the RPP created three experimental treatment conditions to explore combinations of supports intended to increase parent involvement in STEM: The first treatment group received the core components –family STEM events, museum passes, and text messages–; the second treatment group received these core components plus materials in the form of bilingual take-home STEM activity kits; and the third treatment group received the core components, plus the materials, plus monetary rewards ($2.50 per STEM activity). The control group did not receive any of these treatments or participate in the TT program. 181 families at schools where 92% of students received free/reduced lunch participated in the study. 

There were no significant impacts of any of the treatments explored in this study on home-based parent involvement in STEM; however, there were promising effect sizes for the treatment groups that included take-home activity kits along with family education events/resources. Interestingly, the most intensive treatment group that added parent monetary rewards produced short-term improvements in parent involvement that faded at a later follow-up time point. Parents did report high satisfaction with the TT STEM events.

Project in Practice

The museum-based partners’ primary implications for practice was recognizing that adding access to materials and other resources may be important when parents are experiencing poverty and have competing demands on their time for informal learning. The lack of significant impact found in this study may have been due to the limited scope of take-home materials and limited amount of time that these additional supports were provided; the reliability of the parent involvement survey might also have been impacted by ongoing pandemic disruptions. Finally, the lack of significant impact aligns with previous findings on the limited improvements that low cost techniques and interventions produce.

(III) NEW YORK CITY

Research Questions

This study aimed to uncover and address school application barriers faced by families with children eligible for kindergarten in New York City as the New York City Department of Education was shifting to a new digital application platform. The study describes the lessons learned from the RPP’s evidence-based intervention to encourage on-time application and from the intervention’s evaluation process.

Why This Study?

Over the last decade, school application procedures across the United States have become increasingly centralized, digitalized, and often now offer parents their choice of schools across a district. This can provide more opportunity and efficiency to those parents who understand how to navigate new web platforms or apps to submit their applications, but can leave behind other parents who have less information regarding available schools and the process itself. Increased digitization can also make it harder for school districts to reach parents who may not have internet access or emails or cell phones registered with the school district. As families’ first required encounter with the school system, kindergarten application and enrollment is an especially crucial time for getting outreach right. This project therefore sought to understand and address challenges in the kindergarten application process. Lessons learned can inform policymakers looking to implement similar programs in other districts.

Main Findings

The research found that parents got stuck in the kindergarten application process for a number of reasons, including informational barriers (e.g. information gaps regarding eligibility and requirements), motivational barriers (e.g. not submitting application on time because other aspects of life were in flux), and barriers to action, (e.g. “hassle factors” related to the online application system). Based on these findings, the E3 team designed a digital intervention to address some of the barriers that parents experienced. The intervention included a sequence of three digital components that could be folded into NYC Department of Education’s existing resources and tools for outreach: an email campaign, a web-based planning-support tool, and text message reminders.  

Next, the E3 team tested whether the interventions could improve application rates on a large scale using randomized controlled trials. The evaluation team did not detect meaningful differences in the kindergarten application rates of groups that did and did not receive the intervention. Data on receipt of and engagement with the digital intervention suggested that the full intervention bundle may not have reached families that likely face the greatest barriers with the application process. Nonetheless, this research offered valuable insights and lessons for the NYC Department of Education, including new knowledge on how to measure the impact of new communication and outreach and how to use real-time application data to identify segments of parents in need of different tailored outreach, insights into the barriers parents face in the kindergarten application process, and a better understanding of the families who are hard to reach via digital outreach.

Project in Practice

From the E3 team’s identification of barriers in the application process, NYC DOE discussed changing confusing jargon in the application guidance and considered having a shorter application period or starting the application period at a different time of year to make the application deadline more salient. Informed by the project’s exploration of who is and is not included on outreach lists for digital communication, NYC DOE considered new ways to attract parents into its network for digital outreach. NYC DOE is working to incorporate promising elements of the intervention into tools and communications for other grades (see here for an example of ways the E3 team applied lessons learned to the middle school application process).

CONCLUSION

These three research vignettes illustrate just some of the important work taking place in RPPs. We hope it is evident in all three examples how the close partnership between different research- and practice entities enables this work and makes it impactful in different ways. It is our hope that these brief glimpses at RPP work contribute to a better understanding of what RPPs do, why they do it, and how they create positive change in education. For additional research vignettes from many more fantastic RPPs across the country, browse our full Year in Review reports here.  

Suggested citation: NNERPP (2022). Research Vignettes: A Look at Recent RPP Work. NNERPP Extra, 4(1), 2-7.