Earlier this month, the Partnership for Early Education Research (PEER) presented at the 2018 conference of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE). This conference takes place each spring in Washington, D.C., and it draws a mix of participants from universities, state and local education agencies, education firms, research institutes, and philanthropies. The theme for this year’s conference was The Evidence Behind Evidence Use: When Does Education Research Inform Practice? The following descriptions highlight presentations that are particularly relevant to PEER member organizations and the work that this partnership does together.
PEER presented on March 1 as part of a symposium focused on research-practice partnerships in early childhood education. Pamela Morris (New York University) and Jason Wallack (New York City Department of Education) described how NYU and the NYC Department of Education are working together to embed rigorous evaluation into New York City’s Pre-K for All Initiative. Christina Weiland (University of Michigan) and Jason Sachs (Boston Public Schools) explained how the Boston Public Schools early childhood research-practice partnership has evolved over the past 10 years and how it balances rigor and timeliness. Michael Strambler (Yale School of Medicine) described how PEER engaged the three PEER communities in developing a collaborative research agenda and shared some of the successes and challenges PEER has faced during the development and execution phases of our work. Maia Connors (Ounce of Prevention Fund) shared how the Learn Lead Excel early childhood professional development initiative shifted from an external evaluator model to an embedded evaluation model, to facilitate continuous quality improvement. Robert Pianta (University of Virginia) and Caroline Ebanks (Institute of Education Sciences) served as discussants for the symposium.
Many of the other conference sessions focused on early childhood education and on research-practice partnerships. On February 28, members of the Institute of Education Sciences Early Learning Research Network presented preliminary results from the first year of the grant, during which each of the four research teams launched an observational study designed to examine the impact of classroom quality on child outcomes. All four research teams agreed that classroom quality is difficult to measure, which is why the Research Network Grant included funding for the development of a new observation system that can be used by practitioners, Optimizing Learning Opportutnities for Students (OLOS). The day also included a lecture from Andrew Gelman (Columbia University), who reflected on the challenges and importance of conducting rigorous, policy-relevant education research.
On March 2, a team from New York University (NYU), NYU School of Medicine, and University of Pittsburgh presented on their efforts to leverage the community-based health platform to promote school readiness. Although a significant number of families do not enroll their children in center-based early childhood education programs, the presenters explained that most families do bring their children to primary care appointments. This fact makes the pediatric primary care setting an effective, low-cost place to deliver universal and targeted interventions. The presenters described a universal intervention called Video Interaction Project (VIP), in which a trained interventionist films each parent and child playing together and immediately reviews the film with the parent, using a strength-based coaching model to promote self-reflection and self-efficacy. The team also described how VIP has been implemented in combination with a targeted intervention called Family Check-Up, which is designed for to support parents who are experiencing high levels of stress. The presentation made a strong case for the effectiveness and efficiency of using the primary health care setting to deliver interventions that can reduce parental stress that otherwise may have long-term impacts on child outcomes.
Other conference highlights included a motivating keynote address from Ruth Neild (Philadelphia Education Research Consortium) about getting research findings into the hands of decision-makers at the local, state and Federal level. The University of Chicago Consortium on School Research (CCSR) shared new research on the Early Ed Essentials, a measurement system that uses teacher and parent surveys to help early childhood education sites diagnose organizational strengths and weaknesses. Presenters from AIR and Education Northwest shared what they’ve learned through involvement in research-practice partnerships focused on kindergarten entry assessments in a variety of states, including Pennsylvania, Illinois and Alaska. Members of the Educare Learning Network described how the network uses the research-practitioner partnership model to drive continuous improvement and professional learning at both the site and national level.
Overall, PEER was grateful for the opportunity to share its work at SREE and exchange ideas with other research-practice partnerships from around the nation. The conference confirmed that it is both challenging and critical for researchers and practitioners to work together as we strive to improve educational opportunities for young people. Rigorous, actionable research can strength education policy and practice, but such research cannot be conducted unless researchers and practitioners collaborate effectively. PEER looks forward to future conversations about our shared work at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting in April and the National Research Conference on Early Childhood in June.