Access to high-quality early education has become a focus at both the federal and state level in recent years. As interest grows on this topic, so does the interest in research that is useful for addressing important questions that are relevant to practitioners and policymakers. How do we determine and ensure that we are providing high-quality early care and education? How do we make certain that we are continually improving our early childhood education system? Using data and research evidence to guide instructional practices and policy decisions is key to answering these questions.
Unfortunately, systems of education often do not have the capacity to formulate researchable questions, to collect and analyze data linked to these questions, or to make changes in response to research findings. One of the ways to build greater capacity is to create long-term partnerships between researchers and practitioners and other stakeholders that focus on producing research that is relevant, useful, and actionable for education providers. Across a range of topics and geographies, research partnerships increase capacity by connecting researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders for the purpose of providing evidence to inform practice and policy.
With support from several public and private funders of education research, including the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the National Science Foundation (NSF), William T. Grant Foundation, and Spencer Foundation, education partnerships between researchers and practitioners are becoming more common. Partnerships such as the University of Chicago Consortium for School Research and the Research Alliance for New York City Schools have helped guide policy and practice by conducting research on topics including school leadership, teacher effectiveness, school climate, and graduation rates. The success of these models has demonstrated the effectiveness of research-practice partnerships in supporting educational improvement.
PEER’s Role
PEER is part of the important and growing trend toward research-practice partnerships. PEER was created to facilitate collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and policy makers with the primary aim of improving educational programming and, ultimately, student outcomes in Connecticut. Like many other research-practice partnerships, PEER includes a local university partner and local school districts, but PEER also includes a Connecticut Regional Educational Service Center, a non-profit research institution, two state agencies, and numerous early childhood education stakeholders.
By engaging early childhood education administrators, practitioners, policy makers, advocates, and researchers, PEER can support the design of research that addresses the needs and interests of diverse stakeholders, including early childhood educators, as well as young children and their families. PEER’s research has the capacity to inform early childhood education policy and practice at the local and state level, as well as to improve public attitudes about of the value and characteristics of quality early childhood education. Specifically, PEER’s work can support local decision-making and state policy in areas such as funding, licensing, and credentialing for early education programs.
Other Resources for Research-Practice Partnerships
- W.T. Grant Foundation offers resources around a variety of topics, including structuring a partnership, developing a joint research agenda, and developing data-sharing agreements on their research-practice partnerships site.
- The Regional Education Laboratory Northeast & Islands at EDC has developed a Toolkit for districts working with external researchers, which includes guides for establishing a research agenda and sample data-sharing agreements.
- The Research + Practice Collaboratory hosts a site with resources for STEM research-practice partnerships that are guided by the Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) approach.
- Learn more about the work of the University of Chicago Consortium for School Research on their website, which includes an archive of publications produced by CCSR over the past thirty years.
- Learn more about the Research Alliance for New York City Schools on their website, which includes a list of publications and projects.