STORIES OF IMPACT FROM SIX RESEARCH-PRACTICE PARTNERSHIPS

Quick partnership facts
Based in: Chicago, IL
Founded in: 2023
RPP mission: EC*REACH unites partners across Chicago’s early childhood ecosystem to find research-powered answers to community-driven questions. Together, we produce action-oriented research that promotes equitable solutions for early childhood policy and practice in Chicago.

Since launching at Northwestern University last summer, EC*REACH’s key accomplishments in the first year include: hiring a full team of staff; establishing and convening its inaugural advisory board and research council; producing rapid research reports for Chicago Public Schools and the Mayor’s Office; working closely with the Chicago Early Childhood Integrated Data System (CECIDS) team at Northern Illinois University to establish a data use agreement and begin cleaning data in order to develop a research-ready integrated data resource; and convening bimonthly “research roundtable” meetings that create space for early childhood researchers across Chicago to support one another on works in progress. We are especially proud of two major accomplishments this year:

First, we co-developed the citywide early childhood research agenda with 45 early childhood researchers, families, city and community leaders, and providers from across the city of Chicago. This diverse team came together in an iterative and collaborative design process over a period of four months to identify our city’s most pressing early childhood questions and provide guidance on how to go about answering them. The resulting agenda is a foundational resource for EC*REACH and our partners that highlights the need for research that helps Chicago’s early childhood community understand, improve, and reduce inequalities in children’s learning and development, children’s health and wellness, the early childhood workforce, and the early childhood ecosystem’s ability to support these goals.

Second, we hosted the first Chicago Early Childhood Research Conference since 2017, which brought together 250 people—including researchers, educators, service providers, policymakers, early childhood thought leaders, funders, and community organizers—representing over 100 different organizations and institutions around the city. Highlights included keynotes from Vivian Tseng of the Foundation for Child Development and Cristina Pacione-Zayas from the Chicago Mayor’s Office. They bookended a full-day, in-person conference of concurrent speaker panels (as well as a poster reception) that each included presentations from researchers, policymakers, and practitioners and featured conversations that drew connections across the newest research evidence and evidence-based practices and policies.

This year, EC*REACH continues to expand its team and research capacity, and is moving into its next phase of growth focused on launching several new research studies and expanding our capacity as a convener and connector in Chicago’s early childhood community.

Quick partnership facts
Based in: College Park, MD
Founded in: 2023
RPP mission: The RSJC will leverage the power of research-practice partnerships to address one of the grand challenges of our time: deep, persistent educational inequities in learning opportunities and outcomes that disproportionately impact marginalized students.

The Racial and Social Justice Research-Practice Partnership Collaborative (RSJC) launched its inaugural year with a celebratory event featuring guest speaker Bill Penuel, who addressed an enthusiastic collective of campus-based researchers and local school district leaders, teachers, and staff. The RSJC spent the remainder of the 2023-24 school year building a focused partnership between University of Maryland researchers and the Equity Directors of three area school districts. As the partnership grew, we found ourselves returning time and again to the Maryland State Department of Education’s 2021 report, “Transforming the Culture of Maryland’s Schools for Black Boys.” The RSJC was compelled to answer this report’s call to action, bringing together university and school district partners to begin designing a study to examine how Black males experience various aspects of public education in our partner districts. The mixed-methods study we are collaboratively developing will examine ways in which Black male students thrive in pockets across the three districts and will ask hard questions about why such success is not more widespread. In addition to building a partnership and beginning to develop the research project, the RSJC also furthered its mission to build capacity for research-practice partnerships across both the university and school districts by launching a podcast and a book club. The podcast, The RPP Exchange, is now in its second season, continuing to bring researchers and practitioners together to share partnership successes and challenges in ways that further the conversation about bridging research and practice. Last year, the book club brought university and school district folks together to discuss books concerning racial justice in education, from long-standing pillars such as Gloria Ladson-Billings’ The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children and newer works like Gholdy Muhammad’s Unearthing Joy: A Guide to Culturally and Historically Responsive Curriculum and Instruction. Our fruitful conversations sparked ideas for researchers and practitioners alike, informing both the budding research design and day-to-day practice in schools and classrooms. The RSJC is gearing up to expand this year’s book club into a speaker series that further fosters the connections between university-based researchers and school-district-based practitioners.

Quick partnership facts
Based in: Nashville, TN
Founded in: 2021
RPP mission: We bring researchers and educators together as partners to understand and disrupt educational inequities so that every student thrives.

2024 marked a key turning point for PEER, in which (in the words of one of our founding co-directors, Marcy Singer-Gabella) the organization went from “infancy to toddlerhood.” PEER released its first-ever research brief highlighting findings from our pilot working group studying equity in access and success in early post-secondary opportunities (EPSOs). A year and a half in the making, the release of this first brief showcased the incredible amount of partnership, trust, and organization-building that has taken place since PEER first launched. In many ways, the brief’s release signified the culmination of PEER’s “infant stage” during which PEER’s founding co-directors spent much time and energy putting the necessary structures and processes in place to facilitate the co-construction of research, from start to finish.  

Excitement and engagement in PEER’s work continued to build throughout the spring when we launched our fourth working group – leveraging the educational equity ecosystem – and hosted our inaugural research symposium. During the symposium, more than 70 leaders, including Vanderbilt University faculty, key staff from the district (including MNPS’ director of schools, Dr. Adrienne Battle), and school board members came together to learn about the research happening across the PEER network through study-specific poster displays and a series of panel discussions.

The posters highlighted specific aspects of each study (including initial findings) and sparked conversatins between researchers and district staff that otherwise would not have happened. The panel discussions were also well-received and illuminated key insights about engaging in partnership research. Providing opportunities for PEER’s partners to engage and learn from one another, the symposium cultivated excitement around PEER’s work and upcoming research. We are eager to build on this momentum in this school year. 

To aid in planning and continuous improvement of the organization, we surveyed the PEER network in the summer as part of an evaluation of the RPP. Most notably, PEER’s research has already begun to drive real policy and practice changes within the district, especially within our priority area of Postsecondary Readiness. For example, in January 2024, PEER launched co-design research teams in three MNPS high schools to improve student equity and outcomes in their early postsecondary course opportunities, further accelerating PEER’s impact.

We hope to continue the great work MNPS and Vanderbilt have started together in the advancement of PEER’s mission of conducting equity-driven research to guide public education policy and practice, disrupt educational inequities, and enable every student to thrive.

Quick partnership facts
Based in: Maine
Founded in: 2018
RPP mission: STEM Workforce Ready 2030 is working to integrate computer science learning in rural PreK-8 classrooms across Maine.

This was a year of growth for Workforce Ready 2030. Our generous funders, the Alfond Foundation, approved an additional grant that allows us to continue and grow our work for an additional five years. The new grant slightly shifts our focus to the expansion of district hubs with the aim of training teachers to offer high quality computer science integration professional development to their peers. In addition to our seven existing districts, this summer we were able to welcome seven new districts to the project for a total of 14 hubs spread across rural areas of Maine. 

This year, our teams decided to move away from the grade band configuration for meetings. We meet as a whole group once a month, in addition to the district teams holding in-person monthly meetings. In terms of teacher leaders, the WFR 2030 project thus far has trained 50 teachers and involved 20 administrators in integrating computer science in their districts. These educators have impacted nearly 14,857 students to date. 

We continued collaborating with Maine businesses and learning about ways in which they are utilizing computer science and computational thinking in their daily operations. This year, we invited American Unagi, a local aquaculture business, and Dearborn Boretech, a precision manufacturing company, to present to our educators virtually. In response to a direct request from one of our RPP members, the research team has worked to align computer science standards to excerpts from transcripts of the business panels so that educators can more easily identify areas of intersection. 

We held a virtual “Data Deep Dive” where educators were able to break into small groups to review and look for patterns in lesson plan reflections that they had submitted throughout the year. The virtual event included a “speed data-ing” activity where every two minutes educators were paired in a breakout room with a new person to discuss the data. This gave educators a chance to work with peers they may not normally have a chance to. The noticings shared by the educators gave incredible insight into how lesson plan implementation was impacting students and which lessons seemed to be most successful. 

The year culminated with the CS Summer of Fun, which welcomed educators from Maine and for an immersive, week-long experience learning about CS integration. Ten of our educators lead professional development activities throughout the week. Some of the educators leading events were the same teachers who a year ago were just starting on their journey learning about CS and had little to no experience in the field. Through their work with the RPP, they have gained both knowledge and confidence and are now able to share what they have learned with peers in their own districts and beyond. 

This Alfond Foundation-funded project has allowed Maine teachers to learn more about what Maine businesses need, created new, long-lasting relationships between educators and districts, and created opportunities for future funding and partnerships.

Quick partnership facts
Based in: New Orleans, LA
Founded in: 2014
RPP mission: ERA-New Orleans is a research center that collaborates with local education stakeholders to produce objective, rigorous, and useful research to inform the community’s understanding of how to improve students’ experiences in schools and beyond.

In 2024, ERA-NOLA made significant strides in our mission to provide objective and rigorous K-12 education research to help inform the community and promote equitable development in New Orleans. Our programs have expanded, partnerships have strengthened, and community engagement has increased. We are continuing two initiatives within the community. First, we are planning our third Citywide Youth Survey, which examines students’ perceptions of their teachers, schools, and neighborhoods. Second, we are beginning two new board-driven research projects to examine how the teacher pipeline in New Orleans has changed over time. Both initiatives enhance our community partnerships and expand our perspective on the community. ERA also now serves on the steering committee for the New Orleans Youth Data Hub, an initiative sponsored by the New Orleans Youth Alliance, Mayor’s Office of Youth and Families, and the New Orleans Children and Youth Planning Board to provide one place for citywide data on New Orleans youth. We also strengthened our relationship with the district through a new data partnership that includes a shared staff member who supports district work and data requests. 

ERA advisory board members continue to enhance and deepen community perspectives and collaboration. ERA is working with our partners to plan the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The program partners with organizations across the city and will provide a new report on key conclusions and perspectives for the future. ERA is developing a series of resources, including online webinars, timelines, and an interactive site for the public and community to learn about the charter school movement and the future for the city.

This year, we released two data reports that have the potential to improve district and school operations in the future. First, we released an examination of the return to local control in New Orleans, which found sustained student outcomes but strained relationships between the district, school leaders, and the community. Second, we will release a new report on college-going culture, which will shed light on how charter schools support college-going for all students.

Quick partnership facts
Based in: Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah
Founded in: 1966
RPP mission: The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) West helps bridge education research and practice. REL West partners with educators and state and local leaders in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah to build their capacity to make evidence-informed changes that improve student outcomes. REL West is funded by the Institute for Educational Sciences, the research and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education.

REL West has nine active research-practice partnerships operating as of October 2024 with various partners in the region in school districts, county offices, state departments of education, and institutes of higher education. REL West works with partners to use research and evidence to inform local decisions on policy, programs, and practice. The focus of each RPP is driven by partner needs and include: reducing racial disparities in discipline, reducing chronic absence, improving foster youth outcomes, increasing adult college completion rates, improving teacher retention, improving early literacy outcomes, and improving middle school math outcomes for multilingual learners. All REL West RPPs have made progress toward their long-term outcomes. One example is in an RPP focused on reducing chronic absence in Washoe County School District (WCSD) in Nevada. As of spring 2024, the partners have used results from a chronic absence intervention inventory to better understand which interventions are used at schools to reduce chronic absence and how school staff are utilizing tiered, evidence-based interventions as well as to target professional learning about implementation of interventions. . Also, partners have built their capacity to use existing data to better understand which students are referred to receive intensive attendance services, such as a referral to the Student Absence Review Boards (SARB). The partnership is also working on two research studies. One study examines the extent to which systematically disproportionate SARB referrals exist across students from different demographic groups in WCSD or across students attending different schools. The second is investigating whether Check-In/Check-Out is an effective attendance intervention in WCSD, particularly for students from different racial/ethnic backgrounds and for multilingual learners. Due to the partnership, the district staff have already increased their capacity to use data and evidence about chronic absence interventions within the district’s multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) framework and research to guide and support schools in selecting evidence-based interventions to reduce chronic absence. In addition, school staff have increased their understanding of and support for using MTSS practices and evidence-based absence reduction Interventions. WCSD staff are using this increased knowledge and capacity to support efforts that are reducing chronic absence in the district.