Strategic Education Research Partnership (2003) / Chapter Skim
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3. The SERP Organization
3. The SERP Organization
Pages 52-78
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From page 52... ...
an organization with a strong center capable of steering the research and development program and assuring program utility and quality, and (2) dispersed field sites in which collaborative, use-inspired research can be carried out as part of a coherent program.
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From page 53... ...
This assessment and steering, if they are to lead to a coherent and cumulative program of research and development, will require a strong central SERP operation an entity that we shall refer to as SERP headquarters. Requirements for maintaining program quality further suggest the need for a strong center.
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FIELD SITES The defining features of the SERP research program are that it is collaborative and use-inspired, being research for, and often on, practice. It will therefore require the participation of teachers, administrators, and policy makers, as well as access to classrooms, schools, school districts, and possibly teacher education programs as "field sites." These are the equivalent of the teaching hospitals in medicine, places of practice that serve as sites for research.
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From page 55... ...
Or a set of school districts dispersed across a state or across the nation might join together to work on common interests that fit within the SERP agenda. While flexibility about the configuration of field sites is important, they must be willing and be judged able to work as a partner in a SERP Network on a mutually agreeable local version of the SERP agenda.
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Similarly, the issues of whether field sites are necessary was considered, with the alternative being one of funding research56 STRATEGIC EDUCATION RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP
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Should it be structured around problems as they are manifest in the world of practice, like improving mathematics performance in urban school districts, or problems as they are defined in the world of scientific research around sets of issues that share theoretical underpinnings and research paradigms, like the core conceptual components of mathematical proficiency? Persuasive arguments can be made for each if the goal is to improve student learning.
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Effective steering of a large-scale program will require a primary commitment to SERP, and obtaining that primary commitment from top researchers to an institution that is not conducting intramural 58 STRATEGIC EDUCATION RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP
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Some teams might be nominated by the network leadership; others would be chosen through a competitive process in response to a network request for proposals; selection of yet others might be made in response to field initiated proposals. The creation of extramural research teams when and as needed is intended to lend the SERP enterprise a high degree of flexibilit~v and malleability, while the coherence and continuity required for a strategic program is served by the presence of a core internal research group.
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The SERP organization will provide several kinds of support for the on-site research program, including outreach and public support, research support, on-site research support, and financial support. Outreach and Public Support The SERP director will provide information about the initiative to state political, education, and business leaders on an ongoing basis, to encourage a continuity of policy interest in, and support for, the work going on at the field sites.
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From page 63... ...
In the SERP design, then, the committee proposes that funders maintain broad oversight through their participation in the SERP governing board, where ultimate accountability would reside, but that the details of program development should be entrusted to those whose expertise and ultimate commitment is to the quality and productivity of the research and development program. Before we consider the governance structure in more detail, we turn to the issue of who the funders might be.
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From page 64... ...
Similarly, an investment in research and development aimed at improving the learning opportunities for reading teachers should take into account the size of the budget spent for professional development of teachers, as well as the expected cost implications of improving teacher performance. Because delivery of education services and control of the education budget are largely the responsibility of the states, the states are the logical investors in research and development.
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While the budget allocation varies somewhat with fiscal circumstances and competing priorities, the size of the education budget is relatively stable because states are providing the education services at costs that change relatively little from year to year. Decisions about research and development can most rationally be made as the share of those education expenditures to be devoted to improving education services.
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The compact, he believed, would allow the states to effectively communicate and cooperate and would serve as a counterbalance to the enlarged federal role in education ushered in by the GI Bill, the National Defense Education Act, and the Great Society legislation. Conant saw the compact not as a wav to make state nolicv more uni66 r _ __ _J STRATEGIC EDUCATION RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP
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. But eventually states would be expected to contribute a very small portion of their education budget to SERP.2 Having states committed financially would increase the probability of access to field sites and data systems and help provide continuity in the research nro~ram.
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To the extent that the potential partners see the success of a SERP infrastructure as enhancing their own goals and their ability to carry out their own work, the more 68 STRATEGIC EDUCATION RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP
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The membership and size of the governing board will be decided by those who fund SERP, and will no doubt need to be adjusted as SERP grows and prospers. The committee's image of the governing board is one of perhaps a dozen members, who might be drawn from the ranks of former governors known for their commitment to education in their states, industry leaders with a personal involvement in educational improvement, presidents or provosts of institutions of higher education, and those who have served as effective public spokespersons for the importance of educational improvement.
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In the design we envision, SERP functions are carried out in 70 STRATEGIC EDUCATION RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP
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We refer to operational units and offices as a means of both identifying critical functions that a SERP organization must carry out and indicating lines of authority and responsibility that will promote a healthy organizational dynamic. The major challenge of the SERP management team, however, will be one of creating a flexible and dynamic organization.
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It is crucial that the leaders be closely connected R&D Networks FIGURE 3.2 R&D networks. 72 Office of the Directors 1 1 Extramural Research research protocols Tools and instruments Field sites intramural research STRATEGIC EDUCATION RESEARCH PARTNERSHIP
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Although there will be an operational unit responsible for communications and public liaison, we nonetheless propose a communications research and development office housed in the research unit. Effective communication will be the key link between the research and development program and improving student learning.
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Since the SERP proposal entails a substantial increase in capacity to carry out research in field settings, our design assigns the task of capacity building to a fellowships and appointments office that would recruit and provide learning opportunities for postdoctoral fellows and arrange for visiting positions for university professors and for teachers. There are many Ph.D.s in science, mathematics, and engineering who are not employed by universities, and whose expertise might productively be channeled to education research (National Research Council, 2002a)
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From page 76... ...
For example, SERP needs to be a place to turn when a fifth grade mathematics teacher is looking to understand and solve her students' problems learning long division. We see it as a place where a superintendent can go to get performance data on curricula that have been studied in SERP field sites or information about the in-service preparation requirements that accompanied successful interventions.
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Scientific standards would be central to this evaluation. The SERP program evaluation function, in contrast, would focus on the value added by the SERP endeavor.
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From page 78... ...
· High-quality leadership of the organization chosen for substantive expertise and a commitment to the mission of the institution. · Research and development networks designed as collaborations of researchers, practitioners, and policy makers, linked to field sites that allow for the study of practice and policy.
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