Strategic Education Research Partnership (2003) / Chapter Skim
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5. Charting a Course of Action
5. Charting a Course of Action
Pages 107-116
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From page 107... ...
Our search for ways to promote research and development of high quality that focuses on important issues of educational practice has led to the design of a program that is intended to influence many parts of the education system: the development of curricula, materials, and technology that support improved practice; strengthening the curriculum and expanding the research roles of colleges of education; improving professional development; organizational and system change to support improved practice; and, not least, the creation of mechanisms and incentives for teachers and researchers to work together to improve student learning. Much of our work here in developing a prototype organization design and research agenda is intended to illustrate the potential of a SERP enterprise to change significantly the nature of education research and development and its interaction with educational practice.
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From page 108... ...
In collaboration with the leadership of that district, a site-specific research agenda has been identified that maps onto the parts of the larger network agenda of greatest interest to these schools. The school district has expressed the following priorities: · to focus on improving student learning in the domain of middle school reading comprehension across the various domains, including English, science, and history; · to link more closely to a large nearby teacher education program so that preservice teachers are prepared specifically for the curriculum, standards, and student body present in the district; · to link professional development programs more organically to the preservice preparation and to involve both accomplished practitioners and teacher education faculty in overseeing it; and · to improve capabilities in the school district central office in using information that derives from tracking student progress.
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From page 109... ...
Various alternatives are being explored, including providing teachers with hand-held assessment systems to encourage regular assessment and automatic recording of the data for uploading, providing specialists who incorporate reviewing student progress into the regular professional development sessions, and providing an interactive web site for the data so that teachers can explore their own students' records independently. After a period of initial exploration and surveying responses to prototype systems, one of these systems will be more widely implemented and evaluated.
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From page 110... ...
Among the commitments made by the field site was to collect data on black and Hispanic students that would parallel in some respects that being collected by the group focused on Asian immigrant students, and that instructional protocols developed and tested by SERP-LIN would be the basis for any particular focus on middle school reading or high school science in the networked districts. Other school district-research team partnerships that had been working on the issue of the achievement gap petitioned to be affiliated with SERP as well.
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From page 111... ...
How much of that investment will be new, how much can come from pools made available to support state efforts to introduce and evaluate research-based practices through the No Child Left Behind legislation, and how much can come from redirecting resources currently allocated to activities that can be carried out more effectively in the context of a SERP organization, is not yet known. While the size of the investment envisioned may be daunting at the start, given the meager funds traditionally allocated for education research and development and current fiscal strains, even 0.5 to 1 percent of a year's budget for elementary and secondary education would yield two to four times the amount estimated for the first seven years.
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From page 112... ...
Because education is widely held to be the route to upward mobility and the foundation of American democracy, we think the vision of SERP should have broad appeal to funders. And in contributing to a SERP launch, they will have ~2 STRATEGIC EDUCATION RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP
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From page 113... ...
These two illustrative research agendas provide potential seed corn for the inaugural SERP research programs. Launching a venture of this sort requires the imagination to see possibilities that lie beyond the horizon, a realistic vision of what can be done now, and a sensible plan to get from here to there.
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From page 115... ...
Major consultations will therefore be needed to collect the concerns and suggestions of the interested parties, to allow for adjustments in SERP design and process as useful suggestions are received, and to build the active public and private support needed to launch and operate a successful Strategic Education Research Partnership. · ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ TAKING OFF This committee, and the committee that preceded it, brought a great deal of skepticism to the table: skepticism about the ability to focus researchers on work that is relevant to practice, about getting practitioners to use research knowledge, and about the ability to create change in so complex, and behavior dependent, a system.
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From page 116... ...
Conceived and nurtured as an initiative of the National Academies, its future success now must hinge on the will and resources of a broad coalition of partners committed to improving student learning in the United States. The National Academies recognize the critical importance of improving education in this nation and therefore stand ready to support the partners in SERP as they move forward to shape the SERP agenda and implement the bold ideas set forth in this report.
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