ONLY HAVE FIVE MINUTES? CHECK OUT TWO WAYS TO INTEGRATE QUICK HEALTH DISCUSSIONS WITH YOUR RPP
Given the urgency to address locally identified educational challenges that are at the heart of research-practice partnership (RPP) work, finding time to stop and reflect on the health of the partnership can sometimes be hard. At the same time, having a good handle on how things are evolving, especially since RPP work is usually new to many individuals participating in these endeavors and is constantly evolving, this seems like a practice worth doing. To that end, the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships (NNERPP), the National Center for Research in Policy & Practice (NCRPP), and our team from Partner to Improve collaborated to develop a suite of tools that RPP teams can use to incorporate partnership health exercises into their regular meetings and routines. From survey scales and discussion prompts to short five to ten-minute mini-routines, there are options available to meet any team's needs, comfort levels, and priorities throughout the lifecycle of their partnership.
In my experience working as an external evaluator for RPPs for five years, I am constantly considering how teams can address their partnership’s health and effectiveness. To help demonstrate what quick RPP health checks can look like and how easily they can be integrated into a partnership’s regular activities, in this article I highlight two computer science (CS) focused RPPs that I evaluate, describing how they are using mini-routine prompts in their regular meetings. Next, I share three tips for using mini-routines in your context. I hope these experiences can provide some ideas and guidance for other RPPs looking to incorporate discussions of partnership health into their work, but may only have five minutes per meeting to spare.
As a quick orientation before we dive in, these tools align with each of the five dimensions of the newly updated RPP effectiveness framework and their respective indicators. For example, in Dimension 1: Cultivate trust and relationships, the first indicator for that dimension is labeled as 1A: WORK TOGETHER: Partners routinely work together. The mini-routines tool linked in the Dimension Tools table has a suggested mini-routine for that 1A indicator (as well as every other indicator of Dimension 1). Accordingly, when I refer to “3D” or “1G” below, I’m referring to the mini-routine for that dimension and indicator.
CASE STUDY #1: SCALING MENTORS IN CS
First up is Scaling MENTORS in CS, an RPP focused on pairing experienced high school computer science teachers with novice teachers across three Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) chapters. These teacher pairs engage in mentoring activities to improve CS teaching practices. The core project team meets for an hour virtually once a month with researchers from WestEd, representatives from CSTA National, as well as community lead teachers from CSTA Wisconsin Dairyland, CSTA New Jersey, and the CSTA Black Affinity Group all joining as partners.
Scaling MENTORS in CS has developed a steady rhythm for their monthly meetings: agendas are planned in advance, responsibilities for presenting are shared across different role groups, and the focus of each monthly meeting is identified based on both 1) a larger strategic planning calendar for the year, and 2) feedback from partners collected via exit slips at the end of each meeting. This foreplanning allows the group to pick the RPP effectiveness dimension, indicator, and prompt that is most appropriate for each monthly meeting. For instance, when discussing plans for recruiting new mentors, the team ended the meeting by asking everyone to respond to an adjusted version of mini-routine 3D: Learning together through collaborative sensemaking, “Our work today focused on mentor recruitment and selection. How did our learning and thinking bring together research and inquiry, local wisdom, and practical knowledge? Did we emphasize one source of knowledge over another? What (if anything) do we want to do differently at our next meeting?” Responses allowed the team to reflect on potential changes for recruiting mentors and mentees in the next cycle.
With recent political turmoil and threats to equity-focused work, the team has emphasized Dimension 1 and checking in on one another’s welfare and recognizing the competing demands everyone faces, using mini-routine 1G: Navigate broader demands and restraints, “What is something personal or professional that is on your mind today? In what ways can we support you?” Regularly checking in on one another’s lives and work outside of the partnership has helped to strengthen the trusting relationships the RPP is built on.
Partners are able to either share aloud or write down their responses in the shared Google doc that gathers meeting notes. These five-minute discussions are done either at the beginning of a meeting to set up conversations, or at the end to reflect on the work of the day. The flexibility around prompts, format, and timing has allowed the team to incorporate RPP health in a way that doesn’t interrupt the regular work and limited time the team has together.
CASE STUDY #2: CHICAGO ALLIANCE FOR EQUITY IN COMPUTER SCIENCE
The second is the Chicago Alliance for Equity in Computer Science (CAFÉCS), an RPP that has been working in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) since 2011 supporting efforts around the district’s CS graduation requirement and bringing high-quality computer science learning opportunities to all students. The team meets weekly with their partners, which include external researchers from The Learning Partnership and partnering universities, as well as members of the CPS high school computer science team.
Although the RPP has been around for more than a decade, the team has just recently introduced mini-routines into their weekly team meetings. The Program Coordinator puts together the agendas for the weekly high school team meetings and selects a mini-routine that best aligns with the focus of that week’s discussions.
For instance, in one meeting, after discussing upcoming research plans, the team ended their meeting with mini-routine 2C: Engage in research or inquiry for action, “How can the inquiry we discussed today inform our upcoming action as a partnership?” In another meeting, after discussing research data and results from a recent study, the team used another prompt from 2C: “What did we learn today about our focal problem of practice/challenge? What are we still curious about or need to understand more about?” These questions allowed the team to reflect on their research plans and results and identify potential changes to future research.
Earlier in the year while reviewing research instrument design, partners reflected on mini-routine 3F: Advance the practice or community organization’s goals, “How might our work today contribute to our impact on our schools? Is there anything we want to do differently in the future to strengthen our impact further?” The team's responses noted how the instrument review allowed district partners to better understand how the research was aligned with the district’s goals and how district partners can emphasize the importance of this project when talking to teachers and principals.
Mini-routine prompts are primarily done at the end of the meeting and responses are collected via Padlet. The addition of these discussion prompts to weekly meetings has allowed team members to engage regularly, reflect on their work together, and build trust among a team that has faced staffing changes in recent years.
TIPS FOR USING MINI-ROUTINES
As someone who uses a variety of strategies and tools to help RPPs think about their health and effectiveness goals, as well as being part of the research team that crafted the updated dimensions framework and health tools, these are the three main tips I would share with any partnership looking to incorporate quick health checks into their meetings.
(I) Choose the right routine for the moment
The mini routines are an easy way to incorporate partnership health discussions into your regular meetings without disrupting the flow of the work you’re already doing. If you’re just getting started as a partnership, look at Dimension 1 and consider a mini routine that might support building trusting relationships where every partner knows their roles and responsibilities such as 1B: Follow through, “What are we each committing to based on our work today? How will we follow through?“ If your team is reviewing recent publication efforts, maybe end your meeting with 4D: Engage diverse audiences to share knowledge, “Which audiences have we focused on most recently? Which audiences are we forgetting that we want to focus more on going forward?” It’s unlikely you’ll want to use the same prompt at every meeting, which is good, because there are more than 30 to choose from!
(II) Facilitate discussions in a way that works for you
These are semi-structured activities that can easily be facilitated across different mediums and forums. If your team prefers to share aloud, go around and allow everyone who wants to share something to do so. If your team prefers to write out answers synchronously, post the question in the Zoom chat and ask everyone to respond there, or create a space in your shared meeting notes for everyone to write down their responses next to their name. Platforms such as Padlet also provide space for teams to share responses to a prompt, review other partners' responses, and react or respond to these responses. Choose the platform or forum that works best for you and your team.
(III) Be flexible
The prompts as written are a great way to frame your discussions, but the language isn’t set in stone. Adapt the wording to best reflect your work together. Don’t see a prompt that fits your needs? Craft your own! If you need more time to discuss one week, let the conversation keep going. If you don’t have time that week, because you need to focus your time and attention on addressing a time-sensitive issue, skip the mini-routine and try to fit it in next time. These activities should be supporting your work, not hindering it.
It can seem daunting to dive into partnership health activities, with meeting times focused on actually doing the work, but the mini-routines provide a low-lift way to help teams think about the health of their partnership in only five minutes. Make them work for you!
Danny Schmidt is the Executive Director at Partner to Improve.
Suggested citation: Schmidt, D. (2025). Only Have Five Minutes? Check Out Two Ways to Integrate Quick Health Discussions With Your RPP. NNERPP Extra 7(2), 21-25. https://doi.org/10.25613/4EYX-KR37
