One Partnership, Two NICs (Networked Improvement Communities): An Exploration of Participants’ Varying Experiences Across Two NICs

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Collaborative Improvement Networks: Strengthening University-Practitioner Partnerships to Advance Teacher and Student Outcomes (Table 8)

Abstract

This study investigates two Networked Improvement Communities (NICs) —one focused on math reasoning, & one focused on social-emotional learning— organized by the same district-university partnership. Drawing on 59 interviews with participants in both NICs over two years, preliminary findings suggest: 1) participants at all levels & in both NICs described learning as part of the improvement work; 2) there were enabling factors that participants believed enabled the NICs to influence math reasoning; & 3) there was widespread concern over what & how to spread change ideas. As a result, this study has implications for academic and practitioner audiences as NICs are operationalized as an approach for tackling and improving persistent problems of practice in school districts.

Authors

• Pamela Catherine Callahan, University of Maryland

• Maxwell Yurkofsky, Radford University

• Christine M. Neumerski, University of Maryland