Challenges and Opportunities in Research-Practice Partnerships: Insights From the First 10 Years of the Research Alliance for New York City Schools

• In Event: The Promise of a Long-Term Commitment to Research Practice Partnerships in Education

Abstract

Purpose: The mission of the Research Alliance for New York City Schools is to conduct rigorous studies on topics that matter to NYC’s public school education systems. Since 2008, we have been working to provide credible, nonpartisan evidence about policies and practices that promote students’ development and academic success. An essential feature of our mission is to inform decisions among the wide range of stakeholders that comprise our partnership. Our presentation will draw on the perspectives of these stakeholders to explore how several important and sometimes competing principles—for example, between collaboration and independence, and between rigor and relevance—are reflected in our theory of action and day-to-day work.

Framework: Research-practice partnerships in education are premised upon the idea that policymakers and practitioners are more apt to use research evidence when “they help develop it and have ready access to the researchers” (Coburn et al., 2013). Evidence is expected to be more relevant because it is “rooted in districts’ needs” and “more credible because studies are done with local students and take into account local conditions.” As Tseng and Nutley (2014) have argued, however, research use “is not a simple process whereby research ‘facts’ are passed from researchers to research users and then applied in a linear decision making process... Instead, research use is contingent, interactive, and iterative.” In light of these complexities, the Research Alliance’s theory of action includes various types of engagement with different stakeholders and assumes multiple kinds of evidence use (Farrell and Coburn, 2017; Penuel and Allen, 2016).

Methods: The Research Alliance has developed a survey aimed at assessing our visibility, influence, and value from the perspective of stakeholders who, according to our theory of action, should be informed by our work. The survey asks about stakeholders’ knowledge of the Research Alliance, their use of the information we produce, and the degree to which their decisions are informed by our work. In addition to analyses of the survey data, our presentation will draw on case studies of two specific projects that involved deep collaboration with the policy and practice communities (the NYC DOE in one case, and a network of community-based organizations in the other).

Results: Very little of the emerging research on RPPs has focused on the tensions that often arise from efforts to inform multiple and diverse constituencies while maintaining a productive balance among core principles such as collaboration and independence and rigor and relevance. Our presentation will describe how these tensions play out as we develop our research agenda, design and carry out studies, and communicate results. We will explore how these tensions shape both the challenges we face and the strategies we use to make progress toward our goals.

Significance: The challenges and tensions identified in the Research Alliance’s work are likely to be present in other research-practice partnerships. Unearthing these tensions—and highlighting strategies that can be used to manage them—will strengthen the theories driving such partnerships and improve our ability to measure and enhance their effectiveness over time.

Authors

• James J. Kemple, New York University

• Michelle L Paladino, NYC DOE