Teams Meet Across the Region to Craft Long-Term Education Research Agendas

April 2, 2012

Boston, MA – Small groups of educators and policymakers from New England, New York, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands have been meeting with researchers from REL Northeast and Islands to get to know one another and embark on collaborative efforts to create and carry out long-term education research agendas to address key priorities across the Northeast and Islands region.

Conducted face to face and by webinar, these kickoff meetings, with anywhere from a half a dozen to a dozen participants, have been followed by a set workshops in the spring and summer to develop and prioritize a set of researchable questions. As these research alliances work to shape coherent research agendas that will serve them over the next three to five years, REL-NEI will provide research support, undertake a set of descriptive studies to inform the alliances, and eventually help them achieve independence.

“On a national scale, this is newer work overall,” said REL-NEI Research Director Dr. Julie Kochanek at EDC. “These highly collaborative groups will enable members to learn from one another as well as from REL staff and to develop ongoing structures or contacts that can persist outside our REL.”

As they craft their research agendas, the alliances will use data and do policy analysis and participate in Bridge Events with research experts to discuss the applications and implications of a body of education research related to a major priority area.

“The goal is to increase researcher-practitioner collaboration, both to make the research we do more relevant and to build practitioners’ capacity to conduct their own research in the future,” said REL-NEI Director Jill Weber. “Over time, each alliance will generate a cohesive body of research to help guide education policy- and decision-making in local, state, regional, and even national contexts.”