Climbing Out of the Ivory Tower: New Forms of Research-Practice Partnerships

Session Type: Invited Session

Abstract

Through its grants competitions, the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) has been pressing for more research to be conducted with districts, rather than just in districts. These initiatives recognize that researchers often work on issues of interest primarily to them rather than problems of practice identified by school and district leaders, and that teachers are usually too busy and often ill trained to conduct rigorous research. Federal grant programs, therefore, have begun to support long-term research-practice partnerships that work together to identify problems to be studied, to design and refine interventions aimed at addressing those problems, and to support the implementation and scale up of the designed intervention in particular school and district contexts (Anderson & Shattuck, 2012; Coburn, Penuel, & Geil, 2013.)

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Thomas M. Smith, Vanderbilt University

Participants

• Anthony S. Bryk, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

• Suzanne Donovan, SERP Institute

• Lora A. Cohen-Vogel, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Thomas M. Smith, Vanderbilt University

Discussants

• William R. Penuel, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Cynthia E. Coburn, Northwestern University